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THE    RETURN    TO    THE 
CROSS 


THE    RETURN    TO 
THE   CROSS 


BY  THE-REV. 

W.   ROBERTSON    NICOLL,  M.A.  LL.D. 

Editor  of  ' '  The  Expositor"  ' '  The  Expositor's  Bible  " 


NEW   YORK 

DODD    MEAD    &    COMPANY 

149  df  151  FIFTH    AVENUE 
1897 


TO    MY    WIFE 


CONTENTS 


The  Secret  of  Christian  Experience 
From  the  Tabernacle  to  the  House 
The  Value  of  Peculiar  Possessions 
The  Long  Love  of  Christ  . 
The  Sorrows  of  the  Saviour 
"  A  Listener  unto  Death '■ . 
The  Wisdom  of  God  in  a  Mystery 
The  Prayer  Meeting  .        .        .        . 
"  If  Two  of  You  Shall  Agree  "  . 
The  Casting  Away  of  Theology 
Is  the  Gospel  of  Christ  Forgotten  ? 
"  Cast  Your  Deadly  Doing  Down  "   . 
Is  Christ  Dead  in  Vain  ?      .        .        . 

"Being  Let  Go  " 

"  They  Without  Us"    .... 
The  Weight  of  the  Ends  of  the  World 
The  Backwater  of  Life 
The  School  of  Tyrannus    . 


VAGE 

9 
41 
53 
69 

79 
89 

97 
109 
119 
129 

143 
155 
167 
179 
187 
195 
205 

213 


CONTENTS 


FACE 

The  Mothers  of  St.  Paul 221 

From  Glory  to  Glory 229 

Givers  and  Receivers 237 

Christ  Waiting  to  be  Gracious        ....  245 

"  Women  Received  their  Dead  "'      ....  251 

The  Theology  of  Little  Children  ....  261 

The  Evangelical  Love  for  Cijrist  ....  273 

The  Theology  of  Walter  Pater     ....  285 
Is  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  the  Christian  Gospel  "'  297 

"  Geocentricism  "  ;  The  Latest  Scarecrow     .        .  309 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN 
EXPERIENCE* 

T  N  his  most  beautiful  book,  "  Grace  Abounding," 
*  Bunyan  speaks  as  follows:  "Upon  a  day  the 
good  providence  of  God  did  cast  me  to  Bedford, 
to  work  on  my  calling ;  and  in  one  of  the  streets 
of  that  Toivn,  I  came  where  there  were  three  or 
four  poor  Women  sitting  at  a  door  in  the  sun, 
and  talking  about  the  things  of  God  ;  and  being 
now  willing  to  hear  them  discourse  I  drew  near 
to  hear  what  they  said,  for  I  was  now  a  brisk 
talker  also  myself  in  the  matters  of  religion.  But 
I  may  say  /  heard,  but  I  understood  not ;  for  they 
were  far  above,  out  of  my  reach.  Their  talk  was 
about  a  new  birth,  the  work  of  God   on    their 

*  Address  delivered  at  the  close  of  the  Session,  Theological 
College,  Bala,  July  i,  1897. 


10  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

hearts,  also  how  they  were  convinced  of  their 
miserable  state  by  nature.  They  talked  how 
God  had  visited  their  souls  with  His  love  in  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  with  what  words  and  promises 
they  had  been  refreshed,  comforted,  and  supported 
against  the  temptations  of  the  devil.  Moreover 
they  reasoned  of  the  suggestions  and  temptations 
of  Satan  in  particular ;  and  told  to  each  other  by 
which  they  had  been  afflicted,  and  how  they  were 
borne  up  under  his  assaults.  They  also  discoursed 
of  their  own  wretchedness  of  heart,  of  their  un- 
belief, and  did  contemn,  slight,  and  abhor  their 
own  righteousness,  as  filthy  and  insufficient  to  do 
them  any  good.  And  methought  they  spake  as  if 
joy  did  make  them  speak ;  they  spake  with  such 
pleasantness  of  Scripture  language,  and  with  such 
appearance  of  grace  in  all  they  said,  that  they 
were  to  me  as  if  they  had  found  a  new  world,  as 
if  they  were  people  that  dwelt  alone,  and  were 
not  to  be  reckoned  amongst  their  neighbours." 
You  observe  the  characteristics  of  this  experience. 
These  saints  were  conscious  of  the  love  of  God 
in  Christ  Jesus.  They  were  conscious  of  the 
defences  they  received  against  the  assaults  of 
the  Wicked  One.  They  were  conscious  also  of 
their   own  wretchedness  of  heart  and    unbelief, 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE      n 

and  did  utterly  contemn,  slight,  and  abhor  their 
own  righteousness.  And  the  result  and  outcome 
of  this  mixed  experience  was  an  exuberant  joy> 
and  such  an  appearance  of  grace  as  made  their 
hearer  desire  a  place  among  them.  They  ap- 
peared to  him  to  have  found  the  new  world. 
It  is  this  combination  of  joy  and  wretchedness 
that  has  to  be  explained.  In  a  day  when 
ethical  preaching  prevails,  in  a  day  when  some 
profess  to  have  found  a  perfect  victory  over 
sin,  and  others  not  less  loudly  speak  as  if  sin 
should  permanently  darken  the  believer's  life,  it 
may  be  well  for  us  to  ask  whether  the  experience 
of  these  women  of  Bedford  is  not  the  normal  and 
apostolic  type,  whether  it  is  true  that  in  the  end 
our  best  righteousness  is  to  be  utterly  contemned, 
slighted,  and  abhorred,  whether  it  is  true  that  to 
the  last  we  must  speak  of  our  own  wretchedness 
of  heart  and  unbelief,  and  whether  in  spite  of  all 
this  we  may  not  rejoice  in  God  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 


I 


In  the  first  place  what  is  supremely  important  to 
a  minister  is  that  he  should  have  a  message.    Other 


12  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

things  are  by  no  means  to  be  despised.  He  should 
be  taught  how  to  express  that  message  in  the 
speech  of  his  day,  and  in  its  relations  to  the  varying 
aspects  of  thought.  The  vindication  of  theological 
colleges  is  mainly  to  be  found  in  this  necessity, 
and  nearly  all  wise  Christians  are  of  opinion 
that  the  education  of  preachers,  so  far  from  being 
lowered,  ought  to  be  made  much  more  thorough 
than  it  is.  Melanchthon  in  his  day  and  Westcott 
in  ours  have  specially  brought  out  as  against 
pietists  that  Christianity  is  appointed  for  the 
transfiguration  of  the  human  in  every  department, 
that  the  worlds  of  science  and  art  and  literature 
are  accessible  to  the  mind  of  Christ,  and  that  the 
crowns  of  these  kingdoms  also  should  be  set  on 
His  royal  head.  But  I  do  not  think  it  is  needful 
to  dwell  on  this,  but  rather  to  insist  on  the  other 
side  that  the  preacher  without  a  definite  message, 
no  matter  how  well  furnished  otherwise,  is  neces- 
sarily impotent.  Rely  upon  it  that  the  people  of 
Wales,  who  have  listened  to  the  noblest  pulpit 
eloquence  in  the  world,  do  not  ask  from  you 
secular  teaching.  As  time  passes  they  will  ask 
for  it  less  than  ever.  It  is  by  slow  and  piecemeal 
deepening  of  the  great  divine  thoughts  that  the 
spring  of  life  rises  and  abides  in  our  churches. 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE     13 

No  teaching  that  is  purely  ethical  or  intellectual, 
or  the  result  of  the  exercise  of  the  human  reason, 
will  do  other  than  lay  waste  the  supernatural 
Church  that  is  redeemed  by  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb. 

Further,  this  message  is  always  a  secret  given 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  blessed  by  the  Holy 
Ghost.  No  book,  no  earthly  teacher,  can  ever 
impart  that  hidden  wisdom  without  which  your 
ministry  must  be  a  thing  of  nought.  You  must 
in  your  inmost  souls  live  through  the  struggle 
and  the  victory.  Nothing  avails  at  all  in  this 
connection  except  an  immediate  and  original  ex- 
perience of  salvation.  Dr.  Dale  has  told  us  how, 
when  he  was  a  mere  youth,  on  his  knees  and  in 
keen  distress  about  his  personal  salvation,  he  first 
read  through  the  "Anxious  Inquirer."  "Night 
after  night  I  waited  with  eager  impatience  for  the 
house  to  become  still,  that  in  undisturbed  solitude 
I  might  agonise  over  the  book  which  has  taught 
so  many  to  trust  in  God."  It  is  through  anguish 
and  fear  for  the  most  part,  and  always  through 
anxiety  and  eagerness,  that  we  are  led  to  that 
quiet  trust  in  Christ  in  which  we  find  rest  and 
strength,  and  through  which  we  are  enabled  by 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  teach  other  souls  to  forsake 


14  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

sin  and  live  for  God.  I  ought  to  say  that  the 
Christian  secret  is  with  us  a  secret  that  has  to  be 
told.  We  are  not  with  Newman,  who  denounced 
the  practice  of  preaching  the  Atonement  to  the 
unconverted,  who  declared  that  the  preacher 
should  connect  the  Gospel  with  natural  religion, 
and  mark  out  obedience  to  the  moral  law  as  the 
ordinary  means  of  attaining  a  Christian  faith.  We 
stand  with  St.  Paul,  who  delivered  first  of  all  that 
Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  rose  again  on  the  third  day. 

Again,  we  accept  apostolic  doctrine  and  apos- 
tolic experience  as  normal.  Of  the  attempt  made 
in  our  time  to  disparage  the  teachings  of  the 
Apostles,  in  favour  of  the  teaching  of  Christ,  I 
will  only  say  that  when  we  are  done  with  the 
Gospels  we  are  not  done  with  Christ.  One  might 
imagine  from  certain  writers  that  the  subject  of 
one  part,  the  golden  part,  of  the  New  Testament 
was  Christ,  and  ihat  the  subject  of  the  remaining 
part  was  some  one  or  something  else.  You  know 
that  it  is  otherwise,  that  the  Apostles,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  spoke  of  nothing  but  Christ.  They  used 
the  intensest  expressions  to  describe  their  relation 
to  Him,  that  relation  of  utter  humility,  obedience, 
trust,  worship,  intimacy,  which  almost  passed  into 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE     15 

complete  identification.  They  speak  without  a 
doubt  not  only  of  the  Christ  of  Palestine,  but  of  the 
Christ  who  died  and  rose  again.  They  profess  to 
know  through  the  revelation  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
the  far-reaching  significance  of  Christ's  death. 
More  than  this,  the}^  claim  to  have  penetrated  the 
veil  which  hides  the  risen  Lord  in  heaven.  I  liey 
profess  to  know  how  He  fulfils  His  office  as  a 
minister  of  the  sanctuary,  and  of  the  true  taber- 
nacle which  the  Lord  pitched,  and  not  man.  Now 
I  have  simply  to  say  that  their  claims  are  either 
true  or  false.  On  these  subjects  no  man  may 
speak  without  the  spirit  of  revelation.  All  human 
imaginings  and  suppositions  are  as  idle  as  the 
chattering  of  sparrows.  We  have  therefore  to 
say  either  that  we  have  no  light,  that  the  so-called 
revelation  may  be  cancelled,  that  we  must  not 
concern  ourselves  with  it,  that  we  must  content 
ourselves  with  the  imitation  of  our  Lord's  earthly 
life,  or  else  we  must  admit  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
glorified  Christ  by  taking  of  His  and  showing  it 
to  the  Apostles.  What  is  not  competent  is  to  sit 
in  judgment  on  what  is  either  a  revelation  or  a 
deception,  and  try  to  part  it  into  false  and  true. 
The  Apostles  must  in  the  nature  of  the  case  be 
trusted  all  in  all  or  not  at  all.     What  we  know  is 


i6  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

that  when  Christian  doctrine  has  been  made  a 
living  thing,  when  swelHng  hearts  and  conquering 
souls  have  been  subdued  by  the  divine  grace  and 
mercy,  it  has  been  by  those  who,   like  the  re- 
formers, gloried  in  being  scholars  of  the  Apostles. 
Once    more,   in    discussing    these    subjects,   in 
maintaining  that  there  is  a  normal  Christian  faith, 
we  are  not  judging  those  from  whose  theology  we 
dissent.     If  St.  Paul  himself  said  "we  prophesy 
in  part,"  surely  all  of  us  may  say  the  same  thing. 
There  are  those  who  have  laid  passionate  hold  on 
certain  aspects  of  the  faith  to  the  neglect  of  others, 
who  lived   in   the   very  household   and   court   of 
God,  and  at  whose  feet  we  may  well  sit  in  great 
humihty.     What  we  must  say  in  such  cases  is, 
"  He  appeared  unto  them  in  another  form."     In 
His    full-orbed    glory    Christ    appears    to    His 
people's  hearts  as  their  representative  and  their 
substitute,  the  priest  and  the  victim.     But  there 
are  those  to  whom  He  is  rather  a  personal  friend, 
one  to  whom  they  turn  in  hours  of  need  for  in- 
spiration and  succour.     They  know  Christ  after 
this  manner,    although  they  do   not    know  Him 
perfectly.     Still,  it  is  the  business  of  preachers  of 
the  Gospel  to  seek  after  the  full  Gospel  of  the  full 
Christ,   and    to   mark  divergences    from   it   even 


THE  SECRET  OE  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE      17 

when  they  thankfully  admit  that  these  divergences 
have  often  been  used  by  God  for  the  clearer 
understanding  of  His  truth,  and  for  the  rescue  of 
Christian  doctrines  which  were  in  peril  of  obscu- 
ration. 


II 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  Christian  experience  of 
the  Reformation,  and  inquire  how  far  it  con- 
formed with  that  related  by  Bunyan.  In  the 
endlessly  instructive  spiritual  history  of  Luther 
we  find  that  with  him,  from  first  to  last,  justifica- 
tion by  faith  was  the  article  of  a  standing  or  fall- 
ing Church.  Everything,  he  said,  was  contained 
in  it  that  he  taught  and  urged  against  the  devil 
through  his  whole  life.  What  was  it  that  led 
Luther  to  this  great  truth,  and  what  did  it  ex- 
perimentally mean  for  him  ?  It  meant  the  satis- 
faction of  the  else  unappeasable  inquietude  for 
sin  which  drove  him  from  the  Church  of  Rome. 
If  he  had  been  seeking  peace  with  man  or  peace 
with  the  Church,  his  object  would  have  been 
attained  with  comparative  ease.  But  he  was 
seeking  a  far  greater  thing.  He  was  asking  for 
paacc  with  God.      He  knew  that  this  peace  was 

B 


18  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

not  to  be  found  by  grants  from  the  Church,  or  by 
the  accumulated  merits  of  his  ascetic  practices. 
He  needed  something  that  would  atone  for  the 
guilt  of  the  past.  He  needed  a  righteousness 
which  of  himself  he  could  never  attain.  He 
found  in  Christ  the  true  oblation  and  satisfaction 
for  his  sins.  He  found  that  in  Christ  he  was 
delivered  from  all  guilt,  that  Christ  does  with  our 
sins  just  as  though  He  had  committed  them,  and 
therefore  they  are  swallowed  and  drowned  in 
Him,  One  of  the  great  errors  of  modern  evan- 
gelicalism has  been  to  identify  justification  with 
pardon.  Justification  is  more  than  pardon.  It 
means  something  that  is  done  once  for  all,  and 
the  shelter  of  which  falls  alike  upon  past, 
present,  and  future.  It  does  not  mean  simply 
that  the  believer  is  restored  to  the  favour  of  God, 
and  that  the  penalty  of  the  law  is  remitted.  It 
does  not  mean  that  Christ's  work  rendered  the 
remission  of  sin  possible.  It  means  that  the 
believer  is  delivered  from  condemnation  by  the 
satisfaction  of  the  law,  and  that  the  law  no  longer 
condemns,  but  acquits  and  pronounces  just.  Any 
doctrine  short  of  this  deprives  the  life  of  peace. 
We  receive  in  justification  the  present  and  un- 
changeable forgiveness  of  sins  through  the  blood 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE      19 

of  the  Atonement.  Great  is  the  message  of  for- 
giveness, and  I  should  not  deny  but  far  rather 
maintain  that  it  includes  more  ihan  is  commonly 
imagined.  Who,  it  has  been  asked,  can  put  into 
words  intelligible  to  the  mere  understanding 
what  it  is  that  he  seeks  when  he  says  "  Forgive  "  ? 
We  can  say  only  what  it  is  not.  We  are  sure 
only  that  none  who  from  his  heart  has  breathed 
the  prayer,  whether  into  a  divine  or  human  ear, 
has  ever  meant  by  it  merely  "  Remit  the  due 
penalty,  help  me  to  escape  suffering."  What  he 
does  mean  it  is  impossible  perhaps  to  put  into 
other  words,  but  we  may  be  certain  that  it  is 
something  that  none  can  confer  who  cannot 
also  condemn.  Justification  is  more  even  than 
forgiveness,  and  justifying  faith  is  not  mere 
faith  in  an  impersonal  word  of  Christ,  but 
a  confiding  resignation  in  the  living  Christ  as 
Reconciler,  In  Him  faith  lays  hold  of  high- 
priestly  love.  The  Christ  who  brings  us  justifi- 
cation enters  into  living  relation  with  us.  He 
enters  in  through  the  dark  soul's  door,  and  the 
Lord  sups  with  His  children,  and  they  with  Him. 
We  cannot  originate  the  new  life  or  confer  it  on 
ourselves.  We  discover  it  in  Christ,  to  whom 
we  are  united  by  the  faith  that  justifies.     Faith, 


20  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

as  is  said  by  Dorner,  involves  love,  and  good 
works  are  present  in  principle.  There  is  a 
logical  but  not  an  actual  severance  between  justi- 
fication by  faith  and  that  union  with  Christ 
which  is  the  source  of  sanctification.  It  is  the 
union  between  man  and  Christ  that  makes  Christ 
the  propitiation,  and  without  such  a  union  we 
could  not  have  the  remission  of  sins.  It  is  also 
through  this  union  with  Christ  that  we  attain 
His  likeness.  It  is  not  merely  that  Christ 
influences.  It  is  not  that  the  heart  turns  reso- 
lutely from  evil  and  the  world  of  darkness,  and 
dares  the  toil  and  the  endeavour  by  which  it 
attains  the  world  of  light.  It  is  not  that  Christ 
acts  upon  us  as  one  soul  acts  upon  another. 
Wordsworth  says  that  the  mission  of  the  poet  is 
to  add  sunshine  to  daylight,  and  we  have  all 
known  those  spirits  in  whose  neighbourhood 
thought  seemed  clearer,  feeling  stronger,  the 
whole  being  stimulated  and  vivified.  But  the 
Apostles  were  not  satisfied  with  that.  They 
knew  that  not  in  that  way  could  these  dim, 
infirm,  half-blinded  natures  be  conformed  to  the 
image  of  the  Son.  It  was  true  that  the  passions 
and  the  forces  of  their  life  were  drawn  to  Christ. 
But  that  was  not  enough.     In  the  spiritual  order 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE     21 

Christ  is  the  vine  and  we  are  the  branches.  The 
life  of  the  vine  is  active  in  all  its  members, 
Christ  in  the  fullest  sense  is  related  to  us,  for  we 
are  rooted  in  Him,  and  our  true  life  is  lower 
even  than  our  deepest  consciousness.  It  is  not 
on  our  own  resources,  enriched  as  they  may  be 
through  divine  grace,  that  we  rely ;  it  is  a 
deeper  depth  ;  a  depth  to  express  which  language 
is  taxed  and  exhausted.  The  fact  is  no  less  than 
this,  that  the  springs  of  our  life  and  power  lie 
outside  of  ourselves  in  Christ,  are  independent  of 
the  changes  in  our  personal  condition,  and 
furnish  us  with  a  joy  and  a  strength  which  it  is 
out  of  our  power  to  understand  or  account  for 
save  as  we  know  that  His  infinitude  is  under  our 
finitude,  that  we  are  rooted  in  the  Eternal  Son. 

Now  that  we  have  put  together  those  two 
doctrines  of  justification  by  faith  and  of  union 
with  Christ,  what  is  the  result  ?  Is  it  an  experi- 
ence of  unmixed  serenity  and  triumph  ?  No. 
There  is  one  relation,  our  new  covenant  relation 
to  God,  which  continues  well  ordered  in  all 
things  and  sure.  Through  all  changes  in  the  life 
of  the  Christian  it  remains  the  same.  The 
righteousness  of  Christ  has  been  imputed  to  us, 
that    righteousness    which     God's    righteousness 


22  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

requires  Him  to  require,  and  who  shall  lay  any- 
thing to  the  charge  of  God's  elect  when  it  is 
God  that  justifieth  ?  But  it  is  otherwise  in  our 
own  personal  conflict  with  sin.  The  life  which 
is  joined  to  Christ  has  for  its  instrument  an 
organisation  which  is  disordered  and  impaired. 
Defects  of  intellect,  weaknesses  of  the  body,  and 
an  imperfectly  disciplined  conscience  obstruct 
the  perfect  manifestation  of  the  grace  and  beauty 
and  strength  of  the  divine  life.  The  new  nature 
is  fiercely  assailed  by  the  world,  the  flesh,  and 
the  devil.  More  than  that :  when  we  discover 
our  union  with  Christ  we  are  oppressed  as  we 
never  were  by  the  feeling  of  our  own  imperfec- 
tion, of  our  own  infinite  distance  from  God. 
The  nearer  we  come  to  God,  the  greater  seems 
the  interval  between  His  righteousness  and  our 
unrighteousness.  The  sense  of  sin  grows  as  the 
sin  itself  diminishes.  It  aches,  and  throbs,  and 
burns  in  the  heart.  We  utterly  contemn,  slight, 
and  abhor  our  own  righteousness.  We  have  re- 
jected it,  cast  it  away  as  the  ground  of  our  justi- 
fication before  God,  and  after  justification  it 
appears  further  and  further  from  the  divine 
thought  and  ideal.  Besides,  though  God  for- 
gives us,  we  do  not  forgive  ourselves.     The  pain 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE      23 

of  old  sin  burns  through  all  the  fog  of  the  past 
even  when  we  are  loosed  from  our  past  in  His 
own  blood.  What,  then,  is  the  relation  of  the 
righteousness  of  faith  to  the  righteousness  of 
life  ?  It  is  this — that  the  consciousness  of  peace 
and  even  joy  in  God  is  perfectly  consistent  with 
a  consciousness  of  sin  not  only  not  vanishing, 
but  even  becoming  more  intense.  Fellowship 
with  Christ  by  faith  and  the  faithfulness  of 
Christ  come  up  and  atone  for  our  imperfection 
before  God,  and  are  the  pledge  and  seal  of  our 
ultimate  perfection.  And  so  comes  that  strange 
life  which  believers  know,  the  humiliation  of  ill 
deserts  with  the  assurance  of  God's  love,  the 
sense  of  unworthiness  with  the  sense  of  peace, 
happy  confidence  with  humble  self-distrust,  the 
self-renunciation  and  the  self-abasement  which 
gleam  and  burn  through  all  the  writings  of  the 
Apostles,  and  which  make  the  normal  Christian 
experience. 


Ill 

I  propose  next  to  say  something  about  the 
evangelical  revival  and  the  controversy  between 
William  Law  and  John  Wesley.     The  study  of 


24  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

William  Law  has  lately  been  renewed  among  us, 
mainly  by  the  labours  of  Dr.  Whyte.  His  works 
have  been  reprinted  in  a  cheap  and  complete 
form,  and  another  divine  justly  honoured  by  the 
Evangelical  Church,  the  Rev.  Andrew  Murray,  has 
followed  Dr.  Whyte  in  publishing  a  selection 
from  Law's  books.  No  competent  judge  can 
doubt  for  a  moment  Law's  intellectual  greatness, 
his  acuteness  in  argument,  his  power  and  charm 
of  style.  His  was  also  a  very  high  and  leading 
religious  mind,  religious,  perhaps,  rather  than 
Christian.  It  is  with  diffidence  that  one  dissents 
in  any  way  from  those  who  have  lately  brought 
Law's  works  before  Christian  readers.  But  it  is 
fair  to  say  that  since  Wesley's  time  evangelical 
theologians  have  looked  askance  at  much  in  his 
writings,  and  I  venture  to  think  justly.  Law  is 
what  may  be  called  an  extra-biblical  writer,  in 
this  respect  resembling  John  Foster  and  differing 
from  John  Bunyan.  Bunyan's  writings  are  satu- 
rated with  the  Scriptures.  He  says  himself,  **  I 
was  never  out  of  the  Bible,"  and  his  mind  fastened 
upon  it  "  as  a  horse-leech  on  the  vein."  Law 
like  Foster  gathered  a  few  great  ideas  from 
Scripture,  and  both  used  their  powerful  faculties 
for  the  illumination    and    enforcement    of  these. 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXTERIENCE    25 

Law  does  not  quote  the  Bible  very  frequentl}', 
nor  very  correctly,  and  he  assumes  the  right  of 
interpreting  expressions  which  do  not  suit  his 
system  in  a  sense  peculiar  to  himself.  In  that 
very  striking  book,  "The  Penfolk,"  Mr.  Gilmour 
describes  for  us  a  disciple  of  Law  who  says  : 
"  I  dinna  often  quote  frae  Scripture,  for  it  is  like  a 
fiddle;  ye  can  play  ony  tune  on  it  to  people." 
Law  evidently  held  the  view,  described  by 
Robertson  Smith  as  the  essence  of  rationalism, 
that  revelations  of  God  are  given  additional  to  the 
Scripture.  He  said  of  Wesley  that  he  and  the 
Pope  were  under  the  same  necessity  of  condemn- 
ing and  anathematising  the  mystery  of  God 
revealed  by  Jacob  Bohme.  Law's  theology  is 
extremely  difficult  to  characterise  justly,  and 
I  venture  to  think  that  the  existing  attempts 
in  this  direction  are  unsatisfactory.  You  have 
first  of  all  to  remember  that  he  to  a  certain 
extent  altered  his  positions  from  time  to  time, 
never  so  far  as  I  know  admitting  any  great 
change  of  opinion.  What  is  far  more  difficult  is 
that  he  continually  uses  scriptural  and  theological 
language  in  a  sense  of  his  own  which  may  very 
easily  be  misunderstood.  I  think  it  would  be 
difficult    to    draw  a    perfectly  consistent    scheme 


26  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

from  Law's  books,  to  reconcile,  for  example,  his 
doctrine  of  apostolic  succession  and  the  sophis- 
tical ribaldry  on  the  Invisible  Church  which  are 
to  be  found  in  his  letters  to  the  Bishop  of  Bangor 
with  his  letters  to  a  lady  who  proposed  to  join  the 
Church  of  Rome.  But  on  certain  points  he  is 
clear,  and  these  points  are  so  vital  to  evangeli- 
calism that  I  cannot  understand  those  who  can 
see  no  ground  for  Wesley's  criticism.  Let  me 
give  a  few  quotations.  **The  one  only  work  of 
Christ  as  the  Redeemer  is  to  raise  into  life  the 
smothered  spark  of  heaven  in  you."  "  The  atone- 
ment of  the  divine  wrath  and  justice,  and  the  ex- 
tinguishing of  sin  in  the  creature  are  only  different 
expressions  of  the  same  thing."  When  Wesley 
complained  that  Law  grounded  nothing  on  "  faith 
in  His  blood,"  Law  replied,  "  What  is  faith  in  His 
blood  but  a  hearty  willingness  and  a  full  desire 
wholly  to  cease  or  turn  away  from  all  heathenish 
or  Jewish  practice  ?  "  Writing  against  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  alone.  Law  triumphantly 
quotes  from  Christ's  words  at  the  end  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  "  Whosoever  heareth  these 
sayings  of  mine  and  doeth  them,  I  will  liken  him 
unto  a  wise  man  who  built  his  house  upon  a  rock," 
the  rock  according  to  Law  being  not  the  saying, 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE     27 

but  the  doing  of  the  sayings.  In  fact,  he  goes  so 
far  as  to  say  expressly  that  when  St.  Paul  speaks 
of  works  as  unprofitable  for  salvation  he  means 
only  Jewish  or  heathenish  works.  In  his  later 
days  he  used  to  speak  passionately  against  the 
idea  of  there  being  any  such  thing  as  the  wrath 
of  God.  When  confronted  by  the  overwhelming 
Scripture  testimony  he  coolly  replied  that  the 
expressions  were  all  figurative,  and  yet  he  speaks 
in  the  most  orthodox  way  of  Christ  being  the 
atonement  and  satisfaction  for  sin.  One  has  to 
read  him  carefully  and  closely  before  discovering 
that  he  does  not  mean  by  these  expressions  what 
the  Apostles  meant,  or  what  the  Church  has  meant. 
In  the  strict  sense  Law  was  a  legalist,  but  he  is 
saved  by  his  singularly  firm  hold  of  the  truth  that 
all  life  in  the  creature  must  come  from  the  birth 
of  the  holy  nature  of  God.  No  one  insisted  more 
than  he  did  on  the  sublimity  of  what  the  Christian 
life  may  be  and  ought  to  be,  and  on  the  super- 
natural powers  that  are  available  for  reaching  that 
height.  An  extremely  able,  but  as  I  venture  to 
think  not  too  scrupulous,  controversialist.  Law 
never  hesitated,  never  admitted  himself  to  be  in 
the  wrong,  and  treated  all  differences  not  indeed 
with  personal  acrimony,  but  with  a  cold  disdain. 


28  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

Nevertheless  it  cannot  be  doubted  by  any  one 
who  looks  into  the  subject  that  if  Wesley  had 
continued  to  be  a  disciple  of  William  Law  the 
evangelical  revival,  so  far  as  it  depended  on 
Wesley,  would  never  have  existed.  When 
Wesley  broke  from  Law  he  struck  on  the  wa}'  of 
salvation.  It  was  Peter  Bohler  who  led  Wesley 
into  the  truth.  "  Herein  is  a  mystery,  here  the 
wise  men  of  the  world  are  lost.  Let  Thy  blood 
be  a  propitiation  for  me."  Ever  after  when 
Wesley  talked  of  the  doctrine  of  the  satisfaction 
of  Christ,  he  spoke  of  it  as  an  inmost  mystery  of 
the  faith.  Christ  loved  His  own  body  less  than 
His  mystical  body  the  Church,  and  therefore  gave 
the  former  for  the  latter.  Wesley  never  admitted, 
and  we  must  never  admit,  that  the  doctrine  of 
satisfaction  can  be  made  perfectly  accessible  to 
the  human  reason.  St.  Paul  leads  us  not  into  the 
regions  of  common  sense,  but  into  those  of  pro- 
found and  awful  mystery.  Only  it  is  to  be  main- 
tained that  by  actual  spiritual  trial  we  may  know 
the  doctrine  and  prove  it,  and  live  by  it,  and  ex- 
perience the  blessing  of  justification.  We  may 
understand  how  the  Church  lives  in  the  strength 
of  her  one  perpetual  oblation  and  sacrifice,  and 
why  the  awful  Apocalyptic  voices  do  not  cease  to 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE     29 

cry,  **  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain."  The 
spirit  in  which  Wesley  contemplated  the  great 
life-giving  truth  is  expressed  in  his  own  quotation 
from  Madame  Schurmann's  pamphlet :  "  It  is 
precious  to  those  who  feel  the  weight  of  their 
sins,  who  know  that  they  are  by  nature 
children  of  wrath,  and  at  the  same  time 
utterly  incapable  cither  of  paying  the  debt 
or  rising  from  the  death  of  sins,  of  conquering 
themselves,  the  world,  and  the  devil,  or  meriting 
eternal  life." 

Yet  Law's  views  have  conmiended  themselves 
from  opposite  sides  to  well-accredited  evangelical 
divines.  Dr.  Whyte,  on  his  side,  has  done  the 
Church  lasting  service  by  his  profound  conscious- 
ness of  sin,  by  the  keenness  with  which  he  recog- 
nises the  frailty  that  clings  to  even  the  best  works 
of  man,  by  the  sharpness  with  which  he  realises 
the  sense  of  personal  guilt.  Law's  teaching  about 
human  nature  and  about  the  divine  requirement 
has  taken  hold  of  him,  and  greatly  reinforced 
a  tendency  that  already  existed.  We  need  such 
preaching,  and  we  never  needed  it  more  than  at 
a  time  when  the  corruption  of  human  nature  is 
preached  not  so  much  by  believing  men  as  by 
great  unbelieving  teachers  like  Ibsen.     Many  of 


30  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

US  have  fallen  into  the  Romish  error  of  thinking, 
if  we  do  not  dare  to  say,  that  the  corruption  of 
human  nature  is  monstrously  exaggerated — a 
doctrine  from  which  the  idea  of  supererogation 
naturally  springs.  But  there  is  a  danger  in 
the  truer  view.  It  is  the  danger  of  forgetting 
in  the  torturing  consciousness  of  sin  the  true 
and  everlasting  distinction  between  those  who 
are  justified  and  those  who  are  not  justified. 
If  justification  and  pardon  are  confounded, 
Christians  will  come  to  believe  that  when 
pardon  needs  renewal,  justification  needs  re- 
newal also.  They  will  come  to  think  that  they 
are  in  as  unsheltered  and  perilous  a  state  as 
they  were  before  reconciliation.  The  end  will 
be  a  dejection  and  weariness  of  the  soul  utterly 
foreign  to  the  buoyancy  and  triumph  of  the 
Apostles,  a  shrinking  from  the  great  language 
which  it  becomes  the  redeemed  of  the  Lord 
to  use.  It  is  true  that  in  all  things  we  offend 
and  come  short,  but  it  is  true  also  that  to  those 
who  believe  in  Jesus  there  is  granted  a  great  and 
permanent  blessing  that  cannot  be  touched  by 
the  infirmities,  follies  and  sins  which  are  daily 
confessed  and  daily  need  forgiveness.  Justifica- 
tion is  reduced  to  insignificance  and  worthlessness 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE     31 

if  day  by  day  we  can  be  thrown  back  into  the 
wretchedness  of  being  under  the  divine  con- 
demnation. 

No  preaching  can  be  fully  evangelical  which 
does  not  recognise  in  ever}'  part  the  infinite 
significance  of  this  separation.  Dr.  Dale  said 
with  much  truth  that  the  great  secret  of  Mr. 
Spurgeon's  power  was  that  he  was  always  fully 
conscious  of  his  own  free  justification  before  God. 
There  are  those  before  the  preacher  who  in  Christ 
are  justified.  They  are  to  be  called  to  sanctifica- 
tion.  There  arc  those  who  are  not  justified,  and 
they  are  to  be  told  that  they  cannot  sanctify 
themselves,  and  that  their  first  step  is  to  enter 
by  faith  into  the  condition  in  which  they  are 
accepted  in  the  Beloved  as  righteous,  in  which 
they  enter  into  what  is  rather  unity  than  union 
with  Christ,  in  which  all  the  sanctifying  forces 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  work  upon  their  souls.  And 
it  has  to  be  continually  realised  that  in  the 
Christian  experience  the  sense  of  personal  guilt 
and  the  sense  of  personal  deliverance  ought  not 
to  be  severed.  If  there  is  no  sense  of  personal 
guilt,  the  experience  will  be  at  the  very  best  super- 
ficial, and  if  there  is  no  sense  of  personal  deliver- 
ance, the    experience   will    be    one    of  groaning 


32  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

and  burden,  an  experience  in  which  the  soul  is 
an  exile  from  the  joy  of  our  Lord. 

On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Murray  is  attracted  by 
Law's  call  to  perfection,  and  his  high  standard  of 
Christian  holiness.  Of  Mr.  Murray's  teaching  ^ 
generally  I  have  no  right  to  speak,  but  he  is 
more  or  less  identified  in  the  public  mind  with 
the  school  of  teachers  who  proclaim  that  a  higher 
Christian  life  is  accessible.  He  mistakes  in  the 
most  amazing  way  the  ground  of  Wesley's 
severance  from  Law.  These  theologians  for 
the  most  part  make  comparatively  little  of  the 
satisfaction  of  Christ  to  the  divine  justice,  though 
some  of  them  honestly  accept  it.  They  get  rid 
of  the  sense  of  guilt.  They  do  not  seem  to  have 
much  or  anything  to  confess.  They  have  doubt- 
less done  great  service  in  showing  that  Christians 
are  prone  to  rest  satisfied  with  a  lower  degree  of 
attainment  and  joy  than  that  which  Christ  has 
made  possible.  That  we  should  ceaselessly  aspire 
to  be  altogether  hopeful,  altogether  loving,  alto- 
gether believing,  altogether  Christian — that  is  the 
will  of  God.  And  it  is  right  to  acknowledge  that 
the  Scriptures  plainly  teach  us  that  experiences 
which  many  of  us  have  never  shared  are  possible 
to  the  soul  that  trusts  in  Christ.     We  must  not 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE      33 

make  too  much  of  sin  or  allow  it  to  obscure  the 
effects  of  grace.  We  must  not  deny  that  great 
victories  have  been  won  by  the  Spirit  of  God 
in  human  souls.  Who  can  forget  the  tenderness, 
the  triumph,  the  quick  hope  with  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  through  the  mouth  of  His  servants  wel- 
comes every  victory  over  evil  ?  But  there  are 
grave  dangers  of  forgetting  that  we  cannot  atone 
either  by  sorrow  or  by  righteousness,  that  it  is 
on  the  finished  work  of  Christ,  and  on  that  alone, 
that  we  must  rely.  These  teachers  so  far  as  I 
know,  like  Law,  insist  on  the  fact  that  all 
Christian  graces  are  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  but  even  though  they  are,  they  no  more 
avail  for  salvation  than  if  they  were  not.  It  is 
possible  to  dwell  on  these  graces  until  we  actually 
rest  upon  them  for  our  salvation  and  seem  to  lose 
the  very  need  of  pardon.  As  to  whether  perfec- 
tion may  be  attained  in  this  life  it  is  not  necessary 
to  dogmatise.  Doubtless  the  Divine  Spirit  may 
subdue  and  ennoble  our  disordered  natures 
beyond  what  may  easily  be  deemed  possible. 
It  is  a  question  of  experience,  and  it  may  be 
that  many  of  us  are  of  opinion  after  years  and 
years  of  communion  with  them  that  certain  human 
beings   have   attained   perfection,   the   perfection 


34  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

that  reveals  the  quality  and  power  of  a  life  that 
is  higher  than  the  earthly.  But  even  if  it  is  so, 
how  could  those  spirits  claim  to  be  perfect  ?  If 
they  were  perfect  they  would  be  perfect  in  a 
kind,  pure,  self-forgetfulness  that  would  not 
know  its  perfection.  Such  people  as  I  have 
spoken  of  are  quite  unconscious  of  the  good- 
ness of  which  they  are  the  temples.  As  to  those 
who  profess  to  be  perfect,  it  is  but  just  to  say 
that  they  usually  make  the  claim  with  faltering 
lips.  But  has  the  claim  ever  been  allowed  ?  Is 
the  type  of  character  formed  at  perfection  meet- 
ings even  up  to  the  ordinary  standard  of  the 
Christian  character?  Is  it  not  rather  the  type 
of  a  Christianity  which  has  returned  to  pietism  ? 
And  the  pietistic  morality  is  piety.  Morality  in 
the  pietistic  view  is  the  sanctification  of  the 
individual.  In  this  form  of  religion  the  real 
problem  is  not  dealt  with.  Pietism  does  not 
face  life  and  conquer  it,  and  throw  the  man}^- 
chambered  mansions  of  the  soul  into  one.  Rest- 
ing upon  its  own  achievement  it  becomes  a  kind 
of  Christian  endaemonism. 

In  short,  one  error  is  common  to  both  schools. 
They  look  within  and  not  without — one  on  in- 
dwelling sin  and  the  other  on  indwelling  righteous- 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE     35 

ness.  To  say  that  Christ  came  merely  to  reveal 
a  higher  morality  is  to  be  outside  of  Christianity, 
For  then  He  would  have  come  to  thrust  the  world 
into  a  deeper  condemnation.  But,  blessed  be 
His  name,  He  came  not  to  condemn  the  world, 
but  that  the  world,  through  Him,  might  be  saved. 
I  know  no  Christian  teacher  who  maintains  that 
Christianity  is  a  system  of  ethics.  But  many 
forget  that,  when  He  declared  His  saving 
purpose.  He  went  on,  and  that  in  the  very 
budding  and  beginning  of  His  career,  to  explain 
how  it  was  to  be  effected.  "As  Moses  lifted  up 
the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so  must  the 
Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up,  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting 
life."  "  It  is  not  in  our  own  wounds,"  sa^'S 
Vinet,  "  but  in  the  wounds  of  Jesus  that  we 
must  put  our  hands."  And  for  us  there  is  no 
merit  but  the  merit  of  His  atoning  sacrifice. 


IV 


Much  has  been  necessarily  omitted  in  this  brief 
survey,  but  enough  perhaps  has  been  said  to 
show  that   in   a    srenuine    and    normal    Christian 


36  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

experience  the  elements  described  by  Bunyan 
are  still  present  as  much  as  ever.  There  is 
first  of  all  justification  by  faith  by  reliance  on 
the  finished  work  of  Christ.  We  have  in  St. 
Paul's  doctrine  not  merely  a  testimony  against 
human  merit  and  self-righteousness.  We  have 
not  only  the  true  ground  but  the  true  mode  of 
our  justification  by  faith — a  faith  which  works 
by  love.  As  to  the  ground  there  is  no  time  to 
notice  the  controversy  raised  among  evangelicals 
as  to  the  active  and  passive  obedience  of  Christ. 
Writing  against  O'Brien,  Birks  said  that  Christ 
was  not  a  substitute  in  His  active  obedience  to 
the  law  of  God.  That  obedience  was  a  privilege 
and  not  an  evil  or  a  burden,  and  to  be  set  free 
from  obedience  would  be  a  curse  and  no  blessing. 
Perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  say  that  all  Christ's 
obedience  on  earth  was  an  action  and  a  passion. 
Anyhow,  it  is  upon  a  work  outside  of  ourselves 
and  unaffected  by  the  fluctuation  of  our  moods 
that  our  justification  depends.  This  is  a  truth 
which  ought  to  have  more  place  in  Christian 
experience,  and  I  know  no  more  powerful  ex- 
position of  it  than  in  Dora  Green  well's  "  Colloquia 
Crucis."  She  delights  in  all  statements,  however 
naked  and  literal,  that  bring  the  judicial  aspect  of 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE     37 

Christ's  work  into  full  relief.  At  the  very  centre 
of  Christianity  in  her  view  lie  the  doctrines  of 
intervention  and  substitution.  They  are  the 
glorious  alphabet  of  Christianity.  They  may 
be  stammered  over,  travestied,  and  vulgarised 
as  by  children  in  a  village  school,  and  yet  they 
contain  within  them  all  poetry,  all  eloquence, 
in  their  sublimest  and  tenderest  range.  We  are 
to  take  our  deliverance  as  a  settled  axiom  of  the 
soul,  as  a  certainty  which  remains  valid  whether 
we  for  the  moment  realise  it  or  not.  The  Cross 
and  faith  in  the  work  wrought  upon  the  Cross 
is  a  root  that  can  spring  out  of  a  dry  ground. 
"Show  Thy  servants  Thy  zvork"  is  among  the 
deepest  of  prayers. 

And  the  next  element  of  Christian  experience 
is  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  When  the  heart  truly 
joins  itself  to  Christ's  great  sacrifice  and  to  Christ 
Himself,  it  can  dare  and  endure  all  things.  It 
becomes  strong,  free,  untrammelled,  unperturbed. 
It  lays  hold  upon  Christ  in  the  fulness  of  His 
self-communicating  grace.  It  enters  into  the 
kingdom  of  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in 
the  Holy  Ghost.  But  it  does  not  depend  even 
then  on  the  rise  and  fall  of  ecstatic  feeling.  If 
the  divine  act  of  justification  is  the  bestowal  of 


38  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

ecstasy  the  very  foundation  of  justification  is 
shaken,  and  growth  in  sanctification  ceases.  The 
true  doctrine  is  that  through  the  gate  of  God,  the 
Meritorious  Sacrifice,  the  soul  enters  into  the 
great  and  comforting  reaHty  of  pardon  and 
acceptance,  into  the  love  and  peace  and  joy  of 
believing,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  is  made  to  it  the 
Lord  and  Giver  of  Life.  By  Him  it  subdues 
kingdoms,  works  righteousness,  obtains  promises. 
By  Him  it  knits  and  binds  together  the  every  day 
and  the  everlasting.  Nevertheless,  it  has  its 
sorrows,  its  failures,  its  crucifixions,  its  for- 
sakings,  its  despairs. 

For  there  is  present  evermore  that  aching 
sense  of  shortcoming.  If  we  consent  to  the 
presence  of  sin  without  striving,  without  repent- 
ance, without  grief,  or  if  we  lower  the  standard 
of  perfection  till  it  is  within  our  reach,  we  are 
guilty  of  errors  which  have  the  same  root  and  the 
same  fruit.  Nevertheless,  the  normal  Christian 
life  is  the  simultaneous  presence  in  the  soul  of 
grace  and  peace,  and  of  the  consciousness  of  sin  ; 
and  by  virtue  of  our  union  with  Christ  we  who 
are  still  sinners  are  nevertheless  justified,  and 
partakers  of  the  peace  of  God.  So  we  utterly 
contemn,  slight,  and    abhor    our  own  righteous- 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE     39 

ness.  We  slight  it  as  a  possible  ground  of 
justification  before  God.  We  slight  it  for  what 
it  is  in  itself.  Our  best  achievement  is  nothing 
in  the  face  of  the  eternal  throne — so  stained  is  it, 
so  faultful,  so  sinful  in  every  part.  If  He  will 
but  draw  the  red  line  of  His  blood  through  the 
hopeless  reckoning  of  our  life!  And  so  it  comes 
that  at  death  believers  ever  gaze  towards  the 
Cross,  not  to  the  Crown.  The  word  they  need 
is,  "  I  will  be  merciful  to  their  unrighteousness 
and  to  their  righteousness,  and  their  sins  and 
tlieir  iniquities  will  I  remember  no  more."  It 
is  difficult  in  a  time  like  this,  which  takes  the 
fact  of  salvation  so  easil}',  to  understand  how 
hard  the  first  Christians  found  it  to  believe,  and 
how  strong  was  the  consolation  which  God 
administered  them.  Remember  how  the  Apostle 
assured  his  trembling  hearers  of  the  awful,  in- 
credible wonder  of  the  great  salvation.  "  Where- 
fore God,  willing  more  abundantly  to  show  unto 
the  heirs  of  promise  the  immutability  of  His 
counsel,  confirmed  it  by  an  oath,  that  by  two 
inmiutablc  things  in  which  it  was  impossible  for 
God  to  lie  we  might  have  a  strong  consolation 
who  have  fled  for  refuge  to  lay  hold  upon  the 
hope  set  before  us."     "  I  die,"  said  one  of  your 


40  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

own  ministers,  "  resting  on  oaths  and  covenants 
and  blood."  He  utterly  abhorred,  slighted,  and 
contemned  his  own  righteousness.  Over  the 
grave  where  the  body  of  William  Carey  waits 
the  Redeemer's  return  are  the  words  so  dear  to 
our  fathers — 

"  A  guilty,  weak,  and  helpless  worm 
On  Thy  kind  arms  I  fall ; 
Be  Thou  my  strength  and  righteousness, 
My  Jesus  and  my  all."' 


FROM  THE  TABERNACLE  TO  THE 
HOUSE 

WE  have  written  of  the  normal  Christian 
experience  on  earth,  the  experience 
of  faith  and  joy,  of  tender  contrition,  of  ardent 
striving,  the  experience  described  by  Cole- 
ridge as  "  faith  in  the  God-Manhood,  the  Cross, 
the  mediation,  the  perfect  righteousness  of 
Jesus  to  the  utter  rejection  and  abjuration  of  all 
righteousness  of  our  own."  It  may  reasonably 
be  asked  whether  this  experience  will  end  when 
the  spirit  quits  its  dwelling  of  clay,  and  passes, 
as  St.  Paul  says,  from  the  Tabernacle  to  the 
House.  "  We  know  that  if  the  earthly  house  of 
our  tabernacle  be  dissolved  we  have  a  building 
from  God,  a  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal 
in  the  heavens.  For  verily  in  this  we  groan, 
longing  to  be  clothed  upon  with  our  habitation 
which  is  from  heaven,  if  so  be  that  being  clothed 


42  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

we  shall  not  be  found  naked.  For,  indeed,  we 
that  are  in  this  tabernacle  do  groan,  being  bur- 
dened, not  that  we  would  be  unclothed,  but  that 
we  would  be  clothed  upon,  that  what  is  mortal 
may  be  swallowed  up  of  life."  When  the  hour 
comes  when  we  pass  at  last  from  the  Tabernacle 
to  the  House,  do  wc  leave  sin  for  ever  behind  us  ? 
There  is  no  question  which  up  till  recently 
would  have  been  answered  in  the  affirmative 
with  more  confidence  than  this.  There  is 
no  revelation  to  which  the  human  heart  utters 
its  Amen  more  surely  than  to  the  words, 
"Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord." 
Carlyle's  strange  echo  will  be  remembered 
among  many  others,  and  yet  we  have  seen 
lately  signs  of  a  certain  uneasiness.  It  is  asked 
whether  a  natural  process  like  death  can  make 
such  a  change.  Revolutions  in  the  spiritual  life 
are  discredited,  and  with  many  the  new  birth  and 
the  birth  of  the  soul  into  heaven,  with  its  accom- 
panying transformation,  are  viewed  with  equal 
suspicion.  The  time  has  come  when  the  doctrine 
of  Scripture  and  of  all  Protestant  churches  on 
this  head  needs  to  be  pressed  forward  by  Chris- 
tian teachers  with  less  reserve,  and  with  more  of 
edge  in  their  language. 


FROM  THE  TABERNACLE  TO  THE  HOUSE      43 

II  is  well  to  say  in  the  first  place  that  the 
alternative  to  this  doctrine  is  the  doctrine  of 
Purgatory.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has 
been  singularly  cautious  in  its  authoritative  de- 
clarations on  this  theme.  There  are  but  two, 
and  they  tell  simply  that  the  truly  penitent  who 
have  departed  this  life  in  the  love  of  God  before 
they  have  made  satis 'action  for  their  sins  by 
fruits  meet  for  repentance,  arc  cleansed  by  purga- 
torial pains  after  death,  and  may  be  helped  by 
the  suffrages  of  the  living.  Of  course,  popular 
teaching  has  been  more  detailed  and  explicit,  par- 
ticularly in  its  disposition  to  assert  the  use  of 
literal  fire  as  the  cleansing  element.  But  Roman 
Catholics  are  not  obliged  to  believe  this.  What 
they  have  to  believe  in  is  that  Christian  souls 
with  sin  upon  them  pass  into  a  state  of  expiatory 
suffering,  in  which  they  can  be  helped  by  the 
good  works  of  living  believers.  Now  the  moment 
we  admit  that  souls  are  not  perfectly  cleansed  at 
death,  and  that  the  process  of  purification  goes 
on  in  the  other  life,  we  are  compelled,  not  indeed 
to  postulate  the  efficacy  of  prayers,  and  alms,  and 
sacrifices  on  the  part  of  the  living,  but  the  existence 
of  an  intermediate  state  from  which  penitent  and 
sinful  souls  gradually  rise  to  the  world  of  holiness. 


44  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

We  are  also  compelled  to  believe  that  their  purifi- 
cation is,  partly  at  least,  accompanied  by  pain  ;  for 
so  long  as  sin  is  present  pain  must  be  present 
also,  and  under  the  conditions  supposed  it  must 
be  working  for  remedial  ends.  Nor  are  we  able 
to  put  any  limit  on  the  duration  of  this  period. 
The  arguments  which  go  to  show  that  death  does 
not  mark  the  end  of  sin  go  equally  to  show  that 
the  Second  Advent  does  not  make  an  end  of  sin. 
Nor  have  we  any  clue  to  guide  us  to  what  period 
may  be  necessary  for  many  souls  in  order  to  free 
them  from  their  defilement,  Protestant  theo- 
logians naturally  shrink  from  reviving  a  doctrine 
not  to  be  found  in  Scripture,  a  doctrine  which  the 
Reformed  Churches  entirely  reject  as  the  seat  of 
the  very  worst  corruptions.  But  they  cannot 
logically  escape  from  such  conclusion  of  their 
argument. 

In  one  of  her  earliest  books,  "A  Present 
Heaven,"  Dora  Greenwell  urged  that  there  was 
no  such  difference  between  the  experience  of 
deliverance  in  this  life  and  in  the  other  as  it 
was  common  to  suppose.  She  said  that  Chris- 
tians did  not  sufficiently  use  and  prize  the  high 
possibilities  of  their  present  state.  They  were  in 
danger  of  looking  for  another  Christ  than  the 


FROM  THE  TABERNACLE  TO  THE  HOUSE      45 

all-sufficient  Saviour  already  born  into  the  world. 
More,  they  were  in  danger  of  taking  the  key  from 
the  shoulders  of  the  true  Eliakim,  who  openeth 
and  no  man  shutteth,  when  they  looked  to  death 
as  their  saviour  and  deliverer.  A  mere  physical 
process  like  that  of  death  could  not  do  the  work 
of  faith.  There  is  no  theological  writer  from 
whom  we  should  dissent  more  reluctantly  and 
with  more  unfeigned  diffidence  than  from  Dora 
Greenwell,  and  much  of  her  teaching  in  that 
volume  has  long  perplexed  us.  It  was  a  great 
relief  the  other  day  to  discover  a  new  edition  of 
the  book  which  she  had  called  "The  Covenant  of 
Life  and  Peace,"  and  in  which  she  frankly  con- 
fesses that  she  was  mistaken,  that  she  had  failed 
to  see  that  the  glory  of  the  Celestial  is  one  and 
the  glory  of  the  Terrestrial  is  another,  and  that 
the  experiences  of  the  world  after  death  must 
of  necessity  be  immeasurably  higher  and  greater 
than  in  this  world  of  sin  and  struggle  and  con- 
flict. True,  even  here  we  are  reconciled  to  God 
by  the  death  of  His  Son.  For  us  there  exists  no 
more  the  enmity  which  Christ  slew  in  d3nng.  We 
are  freely  justified  by  His  grace,  and  loosed  from 
our  sins  in  His  own  blood,  and  made  a  kingdom 
of  priests  to  God,  even  the  Father.    Nevertheless, 


46  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

there  is  before  us  a  grander  emancipation,  a  com- 
pleter joy,  even  to  love  as  we  are  loved,  and  to 
know  as  we  are  known,  to  arrive  at  that  full  com- 
prehension of  Christ  which  His  most  favoured 
servants  confess  they  must  still  reach  after  here. 

For,  to  begin  with,  in  dying  we  pass  from 
the  Tabernacle  to  the  House.  From  the  rent  and 
harried  home  in  which  we  groan,  being  burdened, 
from  the  terrible  realisation  of  what  dissolution  of 
soul  and  body  means,  from  the  tent  that  is  ever 
at  the  mercy  of  the  circumstances  and  storms  of 
time,  from  the  weight  of  care  and  suffering  the 
body  brings,  and  brings  the  longer  it  is  inhabited, 
we  pass  to  the  House  in  the  heavens  which  is 
God's  work  and  God's  gift,  and  in  which  we 
groan  no  more.  It  is  not  in  the  least  necessary 
in  this  connection  to  discuss  the  question  whether 
St.  Paul  thought  the  seat  of  evil  was  to  be  found 
in  the  body,  nor  is  it  even  necessary  to  discuss 
the  precise  interpretation  of  the  passage  on  which 
these  remarks  are  based.  Even  if  we  concede 
that  the  proper  translation  is,  "  For  this  cause  we 
groan  " — and  the  rendering  seems  to  us  highly 
improbable — no  student  of  St.  Paul,  we  had 
almost  said  no  one  who  knows  what  bodily  frailty 
means,  could  doubt  that  it  was  true  that  St.  Paul 


FROM  THE  TABERNACLE  TO  THE   HOUSE     47 

knew  what  it  is  to  live  in  a  tent  like  this,  that 
he  understood  the  humiliation  of  the  body,  that 
sighs  and  groans  were  often  pressed  from  him  by 
the  load  under  which  he  laboured.  He  had  his 
own  dread  about  death.  Of  the  life  to  come  he 
never  doubted  as  we  do ;  he  had  no  fear  that 
men  eat  and  drink,  and  die  and  vanish  like 
bubbles  from  the  surface  of  the  stream.  What 
he  feared  was  the  forlorn  wandering  of  the  un- 
housed spirit.  He  earnestly  desired  to  be  clothed 
upon  with  his  house  from  heaven,  if  so  be  that 
being  clothed  he  might  not  be  found  naked.  As 
the  end  came  the  fear  passed  away,  and  it  now 
figures  little  in  Christian  experience. 

"  Jesus,  to  Thy  dear  faithful  hand 
My  naked  soul  I  trust," 

is  the  word  often  repeated  with  great  peace  at  the 
supreme  hour.  "  I  saw  the  souls  of  them  which 
had  been  slain  for  the  Word  of  God,  and  there 
was  given  them,  to  each  one,  a  white  robe." 
St.  Paul  was  always  at  close  quarters  with  death, 
and  he  must  have  judged  long  before  the  last  that 
he  had  to  pass  through  its  searching  trial.  His 
comfort  was  that  he  passed  from  the  Tabernacle 
to  the  House. 


48  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

But  the  main  assurance  of  perfection  at  death 
is  the  vision  of  Christ.  All  dark  symbols  are  for 
ever  done  with.  We  shall  see  Him  as  He  is, 
and  we  shall  be  like  Him.  Disclosures  incom- 
parably more  vivid  and  more  potent  than  we  have 
ever  dreamed  of  will  be  granted  us  when  the 
earthly  house  of  this  Tabernacle  is  dissolved. 
The  soul  will  be  encircled  and  absorbed  in  the 
consciousness  of  God.  "  With  Christ "  is  ihe 
one  piercing  word  that  tears  clear  the  whole 
clouded  heaven  to  the  Apostle — "With  Christ 
which  is  very  far  better."  Who  shall  tell  what  is 
covered  by  the  word  "  very  far  "  ?  Whatever  it 
is,  it  is  enough.  "  With  great  mercies  will  I 
gather  thee,"  is  the  divine  sentence  whispered  to 
the  soul.  A  spiritual  operation,  it  is  said,  demands 
a  spiritual  energy.  Yes,  but  this  spiritual  energy 
is  exerted  on  certain  conditions,  and  these  con- 
ditions are  realised  in  dying.  There  is  then  the 
entire  union  of  the  human  and  the  divine.  For 
our  part,  we  take  no  interest  in  the  speculations 
as  to  the  ratioimle  of  this  transformation.  We 
may  say  with  Delitzsch  that  the  sanctifying  power 
of  faith  bursts  forth  at  death,  and  that  the  sight 
of  the  reality  of  what  is  believed  will  wipe  out  all 
sin.     We  may  add  with  Phillippi  that  a  creative. 


FROM  THE  TABERNACLE  TO  THE  HOUSE      49 

miraculous  act  of  God  always  coincides  in  the 
death  of  true  believers.  But  the  air  is  too  rare- 
fied. It  is  wise  rather  to  raise  our  thoughts  to 
the  few  illuminated  points  in  the  mysterious  region, 
the  suns  and  planets  which  light  up  the  darkness, 
and  for  the  rest  to  lean  upon  God,  and  look  with 
calmness  into  the  mysteries  which  He  still  leaves 
so  deep  around  us.  These  untravelled  worlds 
are  more  immediately  than  this  within  the  region 
of  God's  rule,  and  we  shall  find  within  them  when 
the  time  comes  the  fulness  of  content. 

Once  more,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  death 
lifts  the  soul  into  sunshine.  It  immeasurably 
extends  and  glorifies  the  outward  conditions  under 
which  the  development  of  life  will  proceed.  We 
shall  find  ourselves  where  not  only  the  first  fruits 
are  holy,  but  where  the  lump  also  is  holy.  We 
shall  be  in  the  fellowship  of  happy  spirits  for  ever 
joyful,  for  ever  victorious,  for  ever  conscious  of 
the  mighty  efficacies  of  the  Christian  redemption. 
Love  reaching  its  climax  will  cast  out  fear.  Souls 
perfectly  redeemed  will  drink  of  the  river  of  God's 
pleasures  and  be  satisfied.  In  the  full  sense  then 
we  shall  be  delivered  from  this  present  evil  world 
and  translated  into  the  kingdom  of  God's  dear 
Son. 

D 


50  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

This  perfect  life  is  a  life  which  moves  from 
strength  to  strength,  and  which  reaches  its  con- 
summation in  the  resurrection  of  the  body. 
Christian  apologists  have  laid  too  little  stress  on 
St.  Paul's  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
spiritual  body  that  rises  from  the  corruptible  seed. 
The  human  wisdom  of  the  ancient  world  would 
naturally  have  taken  a  view  of  this  which  science 
could  not  accept.  As  Christ  carried  to  heaven 
not  a  fragment  only  of  our  nature,  but  human 
nature  complete  in  all  the  powers  that  are  not 
essentially  connected  with  mortality,  so  His 
people  are  clothed  at  last  in  a  new  body  through 
which  the  soul  speaks.  "  A  body  hast  Thou 
prepared  me,"  is  the  faith  and  hope  of  the 
blessed  dead.  One  recalls  Isaac  Taylor's  quaint 
and  suggestive  interpretation  of  St.  Paul's  words 
before  Agrippa  about  the  promise  of  the  resurrec- 
tion unto  which  the  twelve  tribes  instantly  serving 
God  day  and  night  hope  to  come.  He  refers  it  to 
the  tribes  who  have  gone  up  thither,  who  have 
every  one  of  them  appeared  in  Sion  and  before 
God.  He  takes  the  worship  of  the  desert  as  a 
symbolic  model  of  the  invisible  economy  of  spirits, 
of  the  state  into  which  the  few  brief  years  of 
mortal  life  are  to  bring  every  true  worshipper. 


FROM  THE  TABERNACLE  TO  THE  HOUSE      51 

In  the  furthest  recess  of  the  sacred  paviHon  is 
displayed  the  visible  splendour  of  the  Divine 
Presence.  Before  the  Shekinah  are  the  cherubs 
symbolising  the  constant  adoration  of  the  angels ; 
the  tokens  of  the  mediatorial  covenant  rest  at  the 
foot  of  the  throne.  The  mediator  intercedes 
within  the  inner  chamber,  and  without  the  veils 
are  seen  the  seven  lamps.  From  without  the  veil 
goes  up  the  perpetual  incense  of  prayer  from  the 
assembled  thousands  of  Israel  devoutly  expecting. 
The  promise  of  the  blessed  resurrection,  never 
made  in  fulness  to  the  Israelites  before  Christ,  is 
conveyed  to  them  on  their  entrance  upon  the 
world  of  souls,  and  there  they,  not  having  received 
the  promise,  but  waiting  through  the  distant  lapse 
of  ages,  keep  Sabbath  with  the  people  of  God  till 
He  whose  memorial  is  with  them  rises  suddenly 
from  His  throne  within  the  veil,  and  comes  forth 
to  accomplish  the  redemption  of  the  body. 


THE  VALUE  OF  PECULIAR 
POSSESSIONS* 

NOT  far  from  the  heart  of  a  great  modern  city, 
you  will  sometimes  come  across  old  walls 
and  gateways  which  have  been  outgrown.  What 
was  once  country  is  now  suburb,  and  what  was 
once  suburb  is  now  city.  The  venerable  land- 
marks remain,  but  the  true  boundary  continually 
stretches  itself  further  out.  This  should  be  a 
picture  of  your  life  if  you  continue  to  the  end 
students  of  divinity.  You  will  fail  if  what  now 
marks  the  limit  of  your  attainment  and  thought 
is  not  transcended.  But  you  will  equally  fail  if 
what  you  possess  now  does  not  remain  to  the  end 
central.  If  it  is  overthrown  and  dishonoured, 
there  is  a  real  danger  that  no  soul  city  will  ever 
take  its  place.     What  this  college  should  do  for 

"   Address  delivered  at  the  close  of  the  Session  in  Hackney 
Theological  College,  June  iG,  1S96. 


54  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

you  is  to  enclose  you  in  a  small  circle  permanent 
at  the  centre,  but  ever  tending  to  widen  at  the 
circumference.  A  small  circle  it  must  be,  for  all 
you  know  now  of  God  and  of  the  things  of  God 
cannot  be  much.  Yet  if  the  centre  is  fixed,  it  is 
that  from  which  future  thought  and  knowledge 
radiate,  and  you  will  constantly  go  back  to  it  in 
the  end,  however  free  and  spacious  and  fair  3'our 
life  may  grow. 

I  wish  to  speak  of  the  value  of  things  which 
are  your  very  own,  of  which  you  may  make  your- 
selves masters,  and  by  possession  of  which  you 
may  gain  an  enduring  influence  in  the  kingdom 
of  God.  Much,  very  much,  3^ou  must  of  necessit}' 
have  in  common  with  others,  but  your  lives  will 
make  no  mark  if  in  addition  there  is  not  some- 
thing which  is  3'our  peculiar  possession. 


I 

In  the  first  place  you  must  find  3'Our  own  field 
of  reading.  It  is  not  uncommon,  in  speaking  to 
divinity  students,  to  disparage  reading.  They 
are  warned  against  it  as  the  idlest  of  human 
occupations.     And  no  doubt  it  is  quite  as  impor- 


THE  VALUE  OF  PECULIAR  POSSESSIONS      55 

tant  to  say,  Think,  think,  think,  as  to  sa}'.  Read, 
read,  read.  It  is  true  that  the  greatest  men  of 
all  time  have  read  extremely  little.  You  will 
remember  how  it  was  said  of  Descartes,  for 
example,  that  he  cared  very  little  for  reading,  and 
that  he  left  behind  him  an  exceedingly  small 
collection  of  books.  But  when  one  comes  to 
think  of  it,  is  it  true  that  people  are  so  very  much 
addicted  to  reading  ?  How  many  men  of  your 
acquaintance  are  there  who  would  gladly  forego 
almost  any  engagement  for  the  sake  of  a  few 
hours'  quiet  reading  ?  Is  it  not  so  that  the  vast 
majority  read  only  if  they  can  find  nothing  else 
to  do  ?  How  many  ministers  are  there  who  have 
a  passion  for  reading  ?  It  is  perhaps  not  fair  to 
appeal  to  the  size  of  their  libraries,  for  the  owners 
are  as  a  rule  poor,  and  have  not  many  opportu- 
nities of  getting  books.  Yet  in  this,  too,  the 
adage  holds  that  where  there  is  a  will  there  is  a 
way.  In  the  course  of  my  life  I  do  not  think  I 
have  met  with  half  a  dozen  persons  whose  read- 
ing could  be  said  to  be  very  wide  or  various. 
Further,  of  these  there  was  not  one  who  had  not 
greatly  benefited  by  his  reading,  and  was  not 
enabled  through  his  knowledge  of  books  to 
exercise  an  influence  which  he  would  not  other- 


56  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

wise  have  possessed.  I  am  looking  in  vain  for 
two  persons  whom  one  frequently  hears  denounced 
in  sermons  and  in  addresses — the  man  who  wastes 
his  time  in  omnivorous  reading,  and  the  Christian 
who  needs  to  be  warned  against  expecting  too 
much  in  the  way  of  answer  to  prayer.  But  pass- 
ing from  this  point,  you  ought  to  find  the  line  of 
reading  that  is  congenial  to  you,  and  to  master 
in  some  measure  one  corner  at  least  of  the  great 
realm  of  knowledge.  There  is  no  kind  of  reading 
that  people  so  much  delight  in  as  lists  of  books 
recommended  by  experts.  The  recommendations 
are  never  perhaps  carried  out,  but  there  is  a  glow 
of  virtue  and  hope  in  perusing  them  which  has  an 
endless  fascination.  Remember  that  there  is  a 
limit  to  the  usefulness  of  such  lists.  I  have  read 
a  new  book  by  an  eminent  Wesleyan  minister 
which  is  extremely  typical.  If  you  turn  over  it 
j^ou  find  references  to  the  books  which,  as  we  are 
told,  everybody  should  read  in  these  days,  and 
which  as  a  matter  of  fact  many  do  read — the  books 
of  Wendt,  and  George  Adam  Smith,  and  Drum- 
mond,  and  Gore,  and  the  rest.  It  is  certainly 
well  to  be  abreast  of  current  literature,  but  the 
best  literature  is  not  current,  and  reading  of  that 
kind  inevitabl}'  issues    in   what    is  commonplace 


THE   VALUE  OF  PECULIAR  POSSESSIONS      57 

and  superficial.     Let  me  suggest  some  lines  along 
which  reading  ma}-  be  accomplished. 

A  deep  and  thorough  familiarit}^  with  the  text 
of  the  English  Bible  is  a  rare  and  precious  attain- 
ment. To  have  one  copy  in  large  type  in  which 
you  mark  passages  and  make  annotations  for  a 
lifetime,  which  you  peruse  and  re-peruse  by  day 
and  by  night  is  an  enriching  thing.  It  was  said 
of  Dr.  Emmons,  the  New  England  divine,  who 
had  few  books,  that  he  read  and  re-read  the 
English  Bible  so  often  and  so  carefully  that  its 
words  came  to  him  like  nimble  servitors  and 
stood  waiting  for  his  call.  In  religious  books 
like  these  of  Henry  Dunn — books  which  owe  very 
little  to  general  reading  or  to  intellectual  power 
or  genius  —  3^ou  will  often  find  a  phrase  that 
charms  by  its  grace,  but  is  hidden  like  the  trail- 
ing arbutus  among  the  leaves  of  a  preceding 
summer,  and  as  you  inspect  the  phrase  more 
narrowly  you  find  it  a  choice  but  concealed  quota- 
tion. This  refinement  and  distinction  of  expres- 
sion often  characterises  the  prayers  of  humble 
believers  who  know  but  one  book.  Another 
line  of  reading  extremely  profitable,  but  much 
neglected,  is  that  of  religious  biography.  It  is 
amazinsf  to  find  ministers  who  do  not  know  even 


58  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

such  a  great  storehouse  of  thought  as  the  "  Life 
of  John  Foster."  Or  it  ma}'  be  wise  to  extend 
your  reading  beyond  the  hmits  of  your  own 
church  and  country.  I  venture  to  say  that  there 
is  ver}'  much  to  be  learned  from  the  great  French 
Roman  Cathohc  writers  Hke  Ozanam,  Lacordaire, 
De  Maistre,  Pere  Gratry,  and  others.  It  was 
from  these  that  Dora  Greenwell  mainly  derived  in 
her  profound  theological  essays,  and  the  influence 
which  has  been  exerted  by  Gratry  over  the 
younger  school  of  High  Churchmen  in  thiscountry 
is  the  more  amazing  the  more  it  is  investigated. 
Perhaps  you  may  be  able  to  add  something  to  the 
literature  of  devotion  or  theology,  and  how  man}' 
obvious  blanks  there  are  in  this  field.  For 
example,  I  do  not  know  in  the  English  language 
a  single  great  or  complete  book  on  prayer,  a  book 
dealing  frankly  with  the  teaching  of  Scripture. 
Nor  do  I  know  any  work  in  which  the  significance 
of  forgiveness  is  at  all  adequately  discussed.  The 
way  in  which  forgiveness  comes  is  one  of  the  great 
topics  of  theology,  but  it  is  equally  important  to 
understand  what  forgiveness  means.  In  any  case 
you  may  rest  assured  that  there  is  no  danger  and 
no  temptation  you  need  fear  less  than  the  danger 
of  reading  too  much.     Lagarde   said  in  his  bitter, 


THE  VALUE  OF  PECULIAR  POSSESSIONS      59 

piercing  way,  "  Thcologontm  eos  mores  esse  scinius 
tit  libros  scribaiit  Duilti,  legant  patici,  emaiit  milliy 
"  We  know  that  those  are  the  ways  of  theologians, 
that  many  write  books,  few  read  them,  and  none 
buy  tliem." 


II 

I  pass  on  to  say  something  of  opinions.  Your 
opinions  to  be  of  true  avail  must  be  your  ver}' 
own.  In  these  days  of  controversy  man}'  people 
seem  to  make  up  their  minds  by  striking  an 
average  between  the  extremes  represented  by 
various  champions.  They  like  to  be  called 
moderate  men,  and  are  great  in  condemning 
"the  falsehood  of  extremes."  But  they  never 
look  at  any  question  directly  with  their  own  eyes. 
That  is  too  anxious  a  task.  But  they  think  they 
are  likely  to  be  near  the  mark  if  they  stand  in  the 
middle.  For  example,  the  higher  criticism  is  up 
for  discussion.  These  persons  read  that  some 
scholars  maintain  that  Isaiah  was  written  by  one 
man,  and  others  maintain,  let  us  say,  that  there 
were  three  authors.  The  people  of  whom  1  am 
speaking  would  shrink  from  the  labour  necessar}' 
to  understand  wh}'  the  Isaianic  authorship  is  dis- 


6o  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

puted,  but  are  probably  wilb'ng  to  compromise 
upon  two  authors.  In  the  same  way,  when 
practical  questions  which  need  not  be  referred 
to  are  up,  they  veer  uneasily  between  opposing 
hosts,  watching  day  by  day  how  the  clamour 
rises  and  falls.  They  sometimes  conclude  that 
they  can  be  in  both  camps  at  once  by  saying  that 
one  is  logical  and  the  other  practical.  Sir  Boyle 
Roche  said  that  a  man  could  not  be  in  two  places 
at  once  unless  he  were  a  bird.     Ecclesiastics  are 

not  birds,  and  even  if  they  were The  fact 

is  that  many  questions  altogether  refuse  to  be 
compromised.  The  fertiiiiii  quid  is  generally, 
like  a  quack  medicine,  vulgar  and  impossible, 
and  its  meaning  is  that  the  right  is  never  on 
one  side  and  the  wrong  on  another.  There  was 
once  on  a  time  high  debate  in  a  town  whether  the 
streets  should  be  watered  or  not.  The  contro- 
versy waxed  furious.  The  anti-water  party 
hated  the  slop  of  watered  roads,  and  maintained 
generally  that  the  watering  was  a  useless  ex- 
pense and  a  waste  of  the  water  supply.  The 
water  party  enlarged  on  the  discomfort  of  the 
dust,  and  the  injury  it  caused  to  goods  in  shops. 
The  wrangle  continued  until  the  mayor,  pene- 
trated with  the  belief  that  compromises  are  the 


THE  VALUE  OF  PECULIAR  POSSESSIONS      6i 

very  essence  of  constitutionalism,  offered  a  solu- 
tion of  the  difiiculty.  He  proposed  tliat  the 
water-carts  should  perambulate  the  streets,  but 
that  there  should  be  no  water  in  them.  He  was 
held  by  acclamation  to  have  evinced  statesman- 
like qualities  of  the  highest  order,  and  the  meet- 
ing broke  up  in  peace,  perfectly  satisfied  that  a 
good  result  had  been  achieved.  It  is  not  your 
business  to  be  in  a  majority.  It  may  be  your 
duty  all  your  life  to  buffet  a  strong  current  in 
Church  and  State.  There  are  Three  that  bear 
record  in  heaven,  and  if  your  witness  goes  with 
theirs,  the  rest  do  not  count  at  all. 


Ill 

But  I  wish  to  speak  mainly  of  the  necessity  ot 
having,  as  your  very  own,  religious  convictions. 
There  is  no  kind  of  criticism  you  are  to  encounter 
which  will  puzzle  you  half  so  much  as  that  of 
humble  exercised  believers  who  are  not  edified  by 
your  preaching.  You  may  take  a  very  modest 
view  of  your  own  sermons,  and  willingly  accept 
suggestions  from  those  you  recognise  as  your 
intellectual  equals   or   superiors.      But  you  will 


62  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

learn,  perhaps  slowly  and  painfully,  that  the  true 
arbiters  are  those  who  have  been  taught  of  the 
Holy    Ghost    and    who  find    in   Christ    their  all. 
They  may  not    be   able  to  put   into  words  the 
knowledge    they  have  won,  but  they  can  judge 
very   well    whether   in    the    substance    of   your 
ministry  you  are  faithful  to  revelation.      Let  us 
trace  the  law  of  the  great  decisive  disclosures. 
It  is  a  familiar  truth  that  grief  is  a  great  teacher. 
Not  till  we  have  looked  with  yearning  agony  into 
these  last  things  beyond  the  veil   are  we  able  to 
understand  the  enduring  books  of  sorrow.     It  is 
hardly  possible,   for  example,  that  a  young  man 
can  in  the  full  sense  appreciate  Tennyson's  "In 
Memoriam,"    and    you    will    find    in    Dr.    Hort's 
recently  published  "  Life "   how   he  grew   in   his 
estimation  of  the  poem.     Life  and  experience  are 
interpreters  in  the  lower  plane,  but  in  the  region 
where  you  must  move   freely  there  is  no  interpre- 
tation save  that  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     Learning  in 
a   Christian   minister   is    a  desirable  possession  ; 
eloquence  is  a  rare  and  noble  gift ;  the  power  of 
brilliant,  pungent,  memorable  writing  is  much  to 
be    coveted  ;    a    familiarity    with    contemporary 
thought  puts  you  in  easy  relation  with  the  minds 
of  your  people.     All  these  things,  however,  are  of 


THE  VALUE  OF  PECULIAR  POSSESSIONS      63 

subordinate  importance,  and  do  not  affect  the 
essentials  of  the  Christian  ministry.  What 
Christian  preachers  should  be  is  described  by 
St.  Paul.  They  should  be  ministers  of  Christ 
and  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God.  Now,  it 
would  be  cruel  and  unjust  to  deny  that  in  a  sense 
most  preachers  are  ministers  of  Christ,  Nearly 
all  preachers  believe  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
fulfilled  the  office  of  a  prophet  in  His  estate  of 
humiliation,  and  thereby,  if  not  otherwise,  ac- 
quired a  certain  shadowy  kingship  over  the  quick 
and  dead.  But  it  is  not  every  minister  whom  you 
would  readily  and  naturally  call  a  steward  of  the 
mysteries  of  God.  The  mysteries  of  God  are 
not,  of  course,  the  Christian  sacraments.  They 
are  the  august  and  awful  revelations  of  Christ, 
which  constitute  the  wisdom  that  was  hidden,  but 
is  now  revealed  to  the  Church.  They  are  the 
truths  contained  in  and  proceeding  from  the  facts 
that  Our  Lord  in  His  humiliation  and  His  exalta- 
tion fulfilled  the  oftice  of  the  Prophet,  the  Priest, 
and  the  King  of  His  Church,  and  that  we  are  the 
House  of  Christ,  if  we  hold  fast  the  confidence 
and  the  rejoicing  of  the  hope  firm  unto  the  end. 
There  is  much  in  the  Bible  that  he  who  runs 
may  read.     There  is  a  natural  sense  discovered 


64  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

by  the  grammar  and  the  lexicon.  But  nothing 
which  the  unaided  reader  is  able  to  discover  is  of 
true  saving  worth.  The  mysteries  of  God  are 
revealed  only  to  humble  souls  on  bended  knees. 
In  other  words,  for  the  understanding  of  all  the 
great  truths  which  must  constitute  the  strength 
of  the  Christian  ministry,  there  must  be  an  imme- 
diate and  supernatural  illumination.  There  is  no 
need  to  deny  the  value  of  speech.  It  will  do 
much.  There  are  runes  and  speilwords  by  which 
marvels  are  wrought  in  the  poet's  heaven  of 
invention.  But  what  is  needed  is  that  your 
hearers  should  feel  the  shock  of  a  vital  battery, 
and  such  a  battery  is  neither  to  be  filled  nor  dis- 
charged by  words.  No  learning  and  no  power  of 
intellect  can  by  itself  increase  the  substance  of 
your  knowledge  of  divine  and  eternal  truths. 
And  those  who  possess  no  learning,  but  who 
have  studied  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  those  in 
whom  Christ  survives,  are  able  to  judge  you 
and  your  sermons,  to  recognise  the  field  which 
the  Lord  hath  blessed  and  the  streams  that  make 
glad  the  tabernacles  of  the  Most  High.  I  believe 
that  no  power  of  vision  avails  anything  beyond 
the  light  contained  in  the  page  of  revelation.  But 
it    is    not    wonderful   when    merely   intellectual 


THE  VALUE  OF  PECULIAR  POSSESSIONS      65 

preachers  become  the  rulers  in  the  Church  that 
the  people  turn  to  anything  in  the  tbrm  of 
spiritual  instruction.  In  the  era  of  corrupt  and 
formalised  Lutheranism,  when  the  spirit  of  the 
Reformation  was  lost  in  the  letter,  when  every 
one  argued  about  Calvinism  and  crypto-Cal- 
vinism,  people  turned  with  baited  tempers  and 
barren  hearts  to  the  mystic  Jacob  Bohme.  And 
so  it  will  be  again.  Many  of  you  perhaps  can 
never  be  eloquent.  You  can  never  achieve  fresh 
discoveries  in  the  intellectual  construction  of 
saving  truth.  But  this  may  be  yours  if  you  seek 
it — a  knowledge  of  the  mysteries  of  God — and  it 
is  an  endowment  so  precious  that  all  the  rest  are 
not  to  be  named  in  comparison  with  it.  It  is 
stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God,  speaking  with 
the  accent  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  the  Church  in 
these  days  supremely  needs.  And  this  knowledge 
must  be  in  a  very  peculiar  sense  your  own.  No 
man,  no  book  can  impart  it  to  you.  It  must  be 
learned  direct  from  God  Himself. 

I  believe  that  for  the  most  part  a  faithful 
ministry  of  Christ  will  not  lack  encouragement, 
even  outward  encouragement.  And  yet  there  are 
cases  where  one  is  baffled  to  understand  the 
secret  of  failure.     Still,  to  the  faithful  there  is  no 

E 


66  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

failure.  I  recall  a  beautiful  comparison  suggested 
by  Alfred  Vaughan.  Manj'  a  sunset  has  seemed 
a  vain  splendour,  burning  itself  away  in  the  west 
down  to  the  water's  edge.  When  its  fires  are 
spent  a  som.bre  chill  falls  over  all  things.  But 
these  very  vapours,  gorgeous  with  such  blazonry, 
are  drawn  through  the  cooling  air.  They  creep 
along  the  fields,  and  hang  their  multitude  of  drops 
upon  the  dusty  bushes  and  the  shrunken  flowers. 
It  may  come  to  pass  that  some  of  these  very 
drops,  coloured  a  short  while  since  with  such  a 
red  fire  in  the  heart  of  the  sky,  shall  live  trans- 
formed a  crimson  life  again  in  the  red  petals  of 
the  rose,  and  that  the  golden  overlaying  of  the 
heavens  will  take  substance  and  reappear  as  the 
dust  in  the  heart  of  some  flower  that  completes 
its  beauty  with  the  clammy  moisture.  These 
emblems  of  fancy  show  forth  the  realities  of 
faith,  and  represent  that  law  of  love  which 
suffers  no  true  words  and  no  holy  endeavours 
utterly  to  perish,  even  when  to  mortal  eyes  they 
are  lost  and  dead.  Nothing  in  what  I  have  said 
is  to  be  taken  in  disparagement  of  intellectual 
culture.  But  you  must  be  able  to  say,  "  I  have 
made  my  heart  a  holy  sepulchre,  and  all  m}^  land 
of  thought  a  Palestine."  And  it  is  not  by  learning 


THE  VALUE  OF  PECULIAR  POSSESSIONS      67 

or  talent,  but  by  keeping  the  springs  of  your  life 
full,  that  you  will  be  upborne  through  weariness 
and  care  and  sorrow  and  conflict,  and  enabled 
to  endure  to  the  end,  and  counted  at  last  worthy 
to  attain  that  world  and  the  resurrection  from 
the  dead. 


THE  LONG  LOVE  OF  CHRIST 

I  ^HE  stronghold  of  the  bibhcal  doctrine  of 
^  election  is  to  be  found  in  Our  Lord's 
words.  Stated  in  dogmatic  form,  this  great 
truth  has  lost  its  hold  on  the  consciousness  of 
the  Church,  and  almost  everywhere  has  dis- 
appeared into  the  background.  Yet  the  time 
must  come  when  it  will  resume  its  old  place. 
We  cannot  afford  to  be  ignorant  that  God  "  did 
not  wait  to  love  us  till  this  late,  lonely  moment 
which  we  call  our  life,  that  these  poor  years  are 
steeped  in  the  light  of  everlasting  years."  The 
regions  of  the  spirit  are  but  little  to  be  measured 
by  the  standards  of  time,  and  the  thought  that 
God  loved  us  when  we  did  not  love  Him  is 
infinitely  precious.  His  love  was  before  our 
knowledge,  before  our  being.  It  knew  all,  was 
mindful  of  all,  embraced  its  children  even  in 
their  sleep,  even  in  their  dreams,  unlighted  by 
any  thought  of  it.     Often  in  this  world  two  come 


70  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

together  after  each  has  Hved  a  Hfetime.  Each 
finds  in  the  other  what  the  heart  has  been  seek- 
ing all  the  while  through  lonely,  uncomforted 
years.  There  is  nothing  to  mar  the  gladness 
of  that  great  discovery,  save  the  one  thought 
that  each  has  missed  so  much  of  the  other's 
experience,  and  now  the  journey  is  short.  It 
is  not  so  with  the  eternal,  inalienable  love  of 
Christ.  The  eternity  of  redeeming  love  expresses 
itself  in  experience  as  securit}^  When  we  look 
at  Our  Lord's  last  words  to  the  disciples  and  to 
the  Father,  it  is  plain  that  the  eternal  choice  to 
His  mind  is  the  assurance  that  His  people  are 
safe.  God  gave  Christ  power  over  all  flesh 
that  He  should  give  eternal  life  to  as  many 
as  the  Father  had  given  Him.  The  men  whom 
God  gave  Christ  out  of  the  world  were  God's, 
and  God  gave  them  to  Christ.  For  these  He 
prayed,  for  they  were  God's  and  His.  His 
human  consciousness  might  almost  have  reeled 
under  the  thought  of  all  they  had  to  pass 
through,  when  His  visible  presence  was  no 
longer  with  them.  Nevertheless  the  purpose  of 
God  nuist  stand.  They  were  so  few  and  so 
feeble — their  foes  were  so  many,  so  strong,  so 
unrelenting,  that  it  seemed  inevitable  they  should 


THE  LONG  LOVE  OF  CHRIST  71 

be  swept  away  by  the  tide  of  hate.  They  were 
to  be  condemned,  persecuted,  slain,  and  all  in  the 
name  of  God.  But  the  love  of  the  Father  who 
gave  them  in  answer  to  the  love  of  Christ  would 
not  fail.  And  their  Redeemer  willed  that  they 
should  be  with  Him  where  He  was,  that  they 
should  behold  His  glory,  and  that  will  of  His 
would  triumph,  no  matter  what  withstood  it. 
The  sheep  of  Christ  should  never  perish,  neither 
should  any  pluck  them  out  of  His  hand.  Can  we 
afford  to  miss  the  knowledge  of  divine  pledges, 
divine  care,  divine  purpose  in  such  a  world  as 
this  which  surrounds  us,  amid  so  many  deadly 
antagonists  of  love  ?  If  the  keeping  of  the  love 
of  Christ  depended  on  ourselves,  our  heart's  best 
treasure  would  be  insecure.  But  if  He  has  loved 
us  from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  who 
shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ  ? 

The  long  love  of  Christ,  stretching  from  eternity 
to  eternity,  had  its  special  time  of  manifestation 
and  appeal.  When  we  were  blind  and  deaf  and 
dumb  to  Love,  Love  called  us  from  Calvary. 
Christ  became  incarnate,  and  for  our  sakes 
made  the  journey  from  "  the  poor  manger  to 
the  bitter  cross."  He  came  into  the  world  not 
as  a  shoot  from  the  innermost   pith  of   divinely 


72  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

endowed  human  nature,  for  that  nature  was 
diseased,  but  as  a  root  out  of  a  dry  ground, 
as  the  Word  made  flesh.  As  He  hung  on  Calvary 
in  His  mortal  wounds,  He  disclosed  Love's  very 
heart.  When  men  in  their  hardness  desired  to 
know  nothing  of  Love,  Love  refused  to  forsake 
them,  Love  had  compassion  upon  them,  and 
manifested  Itself  anew  to  them  in  the  work  of 
redemption.  We  know  how  it  is  with  human 
affection.  It  becomes  as  the  years  pass  tranquil 
and  for  the  most  part  silent.  It  is  content  with 
the  memory  of  its  old  sweet  time  of  speech. 
How  often  between  two  who  have  taken  the 
long  path  together,  the  divine  words  rise  in 
the  heart,  though  they  may  be  unspoken :  "  I 
remember  thee,  the  kindness  of  thy  youth,  the 
love  of  thine  espousals  when  thou  wentest  after 
me  in  the  wilderness  in  a  land  that  was  not 
sown."  "When  thou  wentest  after  me  in  a  land 
not  sown " — that  is,  when  you  went  with  me 
into  the  backwoods,  into  the  bush,  when  you 
were  so  brave  and  faithful,  when  youi'  spirit 
rose  superior  to  all  our  straits  and  toil,  when 
you  heartened  me  as  I  was  sinking,  when  you 
made  our  poor  pittance  go  so  far,  when  the 
glory    of  your    love    transfigured    the    hard    and 


THE  LONG  LOVE  OF  CHRIST  73 

poverty-stricken  days.  When  such  memories 
rise  in  a  husband's  heart,  everything  else  is 
forgotten.  The  work  of  time  and  toil  is  undone. 
More  than  the  long  vanished  loveliness  shines 
from  the  worn  features — they  are  illuminated 
in  the  light  of  the  heart  of  God.  And  so  the 
long  love  of  Christ  has  spoken  to  us  once  and 
for  ever  from  the  cross  on  which  He  died,  and 
in  the  light  of  it  we  perceive  in  all  our  history, 
in  nature,  and  in  providence  what  Heinrich 
MiJller  has  finely  called  **  the  preaching  love  of 
God." 

All  human  love,  the  noblest,  the  purest,  the 
tenderest,  has  its  strange  alternations,  its  terrible 
checks  and  pauses.  But  to  the  communication  of 
the  long  love  of  Christ  there  need  be  no  end. 
We  are  able  to  think  of  that  Love  without  the 
shadow  of  fear.  In  how  many  homes  love  and 
pain  are  joined  together !  And  the  one  makes 
the  other  grow.  Though  the  love  is  perfect  and 
unclouded  in  itself,  although  almost  impregnable 
fortresses  have  been  built  against  worldly  care, 
the  shadow  of  death  begins  to  fall,  and  there  is 
never  a  mxoment  of  true  peace.  Charlotte  Bronte 
wrote  about  her  dying  sister  Emil}- :  "  I  cherish 
hope  as  well  as  I  can,  but  her  appearance   and 


74  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

her  symptoms  tend  to  crush  that  feeUng.  Yet 
I  argue  that  the  present  emaciation,  cough, 
weakness,  shortness  of  breath,  are  the  results 
of  inflammation  now,  I  trust,  subsided,  and  that 
with  time  these  ailments  will  gradually  leave  her. 
But  my  father  shakes  his  head  and  speaks  of 
others  of  our  family  once  similarly  afQicted,  for 
whom  he  likewise  persisted  in  hoping  against 
hope,  and  who  are  now  removed  where  hope 
and  fear  fluctuate  no  more.  There  were,  how- 
ever, differences  between  their  case  and  hers, 
important  differences  I  think.  I  must  cling  to 
the  expectation  of  her  recovery.  I  cannot  re- 
nounce it."  But  the  blow  fell,  as  it  falls  so 
often,  and  what  then  ?  Even  when  we  have 
received  to  the  full  all  divine  consolation,  even 
when  we  have  submitted  ourselves  completely 
to  the  truth  and  will  of  God,  the  fact  remains 
that  the  great  separation  has  now  taken  place, 
and  that  we  miss  the  daily,  hourly  assurance  of 
affection  which  was  once  our  life.  We  may  say 
with  full  hearts,  "  Even  so,  Father."  We  may 
perfectly  realise  that  the  vision  of  the  beloved, 
if  it  were  again  bestowed,  would  smite  us  to 
the  earth  as  dead.  We  may  know  that  any 
meeting   of   the    earthly   consciousness   with   the 


THE  LONG  LOVE  OF  CHRIST  75 

exalted  spirit  would  almost  break  down  the 
powers  of  the  mind  and  of  life.  Yet  still  we 
are  not  content. 

"Could  I  but  win  thee  for  one  hour  from  otl  that  starry 

shore, 
The  hunger  of  my  heart  were  stilled  for  death  hath  told 

thee  more 
Than  the  melancholy  world  doth  know,  things  deeper  than 

all  lore."' 

But  in  place  of  the  earthly  affection,  lost  in 
some  measure  for  the  time,  we  have  the  constant 
presence  of  the  love  of  Christ,  a  presence  which, 
if  we  will,  is  always  seeking  to  break  into  com- 
munication and  comfort  and  strength.  The  ex- 
pression of  love  is  not  giving,  not  sacrifice,  but 
love,  and  the  long  love  of  Christ  is  ever  waiting 
to  be  gracious.  As  St.  Augustine  has  said,  "the 
divine  love  is  a  caressing  love."  This  is  the  true 
Easter  message,  the  message  of  the  eternal 
presence  of  the  risen  Saviour. 

The  long  love  of  Christ,  as  it  began  in  eternity, 
stretches  on  through  eternity.  Indeed,  it  is  this 
that  makes  the  thought  of  eternity  bearable.  For 
all  things  are  mortal  saving  only  love.  All  things, 
however  sweet,  however  prized,  will  at  length 
begin  to  fail,  and  when  the  time  comes  we  shall 


76  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

be  glad  of  their  failure.  But  who  that  has  loved 
has  ever  desired  an  end  to  love  ?  Who  that  has 
loved  has  ever  felt  the  interruption  of  love  as  any- 
thing but  the  chief  calamity  of  life,  a  cruel  break 
in  the  eternal  and  divine  order,  the  bitterest 
penalty  of  wrong-doing  ?  The  love  which  is  so 
near  us,  and  in  which  our  earthly  life  may  be 
spent  in  all  its  labour  and  conflict,  is  the  love  that 
stretches  out  to  the  endless  end.  Those  who 
have  gazed  already,  as  spirits  may  gaze,  on  the 
face  of  the  eternal  Christ,  have  found  it  in  its 
perfected  manifestation,  and  we  go  forward  to 
meet  them.  To  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  the  city 
of  peace,  the  redeemed  of  the  Lord  go  up  from  all 
the  lands  of  life.  And  if  we  are  Christ's,  received 
into  the  communion  of  the  Redeemer  and  His 
righteousness,  we  shall  feel  that  this  and  this  only 
is  our  true  home,  and  we  shall  draw  near  to  it, 
not  timidly,  not  shrinkingly,  but  with  eager  desire, 
as  those  who  are  no  more  strangers  and  foreigners, 
but  fellow-citizens  with  the  saints  and  of  the 
household  of  God.  As  we  understand  the  depth 
of  the  final  rest,  we  grow  reconciled  to  our 
bereavements.  It  seems  indeed  more  natural 
that  the  beloved  should  be  withdrawn  from  us 
than  that  they  should  ever  have  been  at  our  side. 


THE  LONG  LOVE  OF  CHRIST  77 

Our  Easter  message  then  is  that  all  of  us  may 
find,  and  find  now  and  find  never  again  to  lose, 
the  present  love  of  Christ.  How  many  in  weary 
and  craving  solitude  through  dark  and  melancholy 
years  have  been  seeking  the  crown  that  has  never 
come  !     They  have  been  saying, 

"  Does  Love  descend  from  heaven  like  light, 
Or  grow  like  flowers  out  of  the  ground  "•" 
For  I  mean  to  seek  him  day  and  night, 
Till  I  find  him,  dear,  as  you  have  found."" 

"  Seek  what  ye  seek,"  says  St.  Augustine — "  it  is 
not  where  ye  seek  it."  Human  nature  only  feels 
at  home  and  well  and  safe  and  sound  in  love,  but 
earthly  love,  at  least  in  full  and  satisfying  measure, 
may  be  denied. 

"  '  If  I  had  married  Aaron  Miles,'  went  on 
Aurelia  thoughtfully,  '  I  might  have  had  trials  in 
plenty.  I  reckon  I  was  bound  to,  although  that's 
as  the  Lord  wills  ;  I'm  not  maintaining  I  shouldn't, 
but  I  guess  that  dreadful  sort  of  useless  feeling  I 
never  should  have  known.  It's  rather  unfair  I 
should  know  it,  too,  seeing  there's  plenty  of 
women,  and  unmarried  ones  too,  that  don't  have 
it.  I  just  tried  once  to  explain  it  to  Mehitabel, 
and  I  guess  you  should  have  seen  her  stare.  I 
don't  rightly  know  why  I'm  telling  you  now,  onl}' 


78  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

all  this  anxiety  tells  on  me.  Seems  as  if  I  had  to 
talk,  or  I  should  die  right  away.  So  the  years 
went  on  at  home,  and  sometimes,  although  I  was 
always  very  quiet,  the  thought  of,  maybe,  all  I 
might  have  had  but  for  poor  Mehitabel's  principles, 
and  all  the  love  I  had  missed,  just  grew  intolerable. 
It  was  not  the  being  loved  myself  I  cared  for  so 
much  as  finding  folk  I  could  love  that  I  wanted. 
Wh}^,  there  have  been  days  when  I  could  hardly 
bear  the  sight  of  a  child's  face,  or  the  sound  of  its 
little,    shrill    voice,    through    thinking    that    had 

things  been  different '  " 

But  love  is  at  our  side  with  its  wealth  of  grace 
and  peace,  love  in  which  the  soul  may  find  its 
happiness  and  the  heart  its  true  life.  He  who 
lived  and  died  for  us,  and  lives  for  evermore,  is 
near  us  all  in  our  loneliness  and  our  lovelessness, 
and  is  still  saying,  **Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that 
labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you 
rest " — rest  in  love. 


THE  SORROWS  OF  THE  SAVIOUR 

"IT  pleased  the  Lord  to  bruise  Him."  He  was 
^  "  acquainted  with  grief."  It  had  to  be  so, 
for  the  Incarnate  Saviour,  with  His  messages 
and  burdens,  could  not  come  in  the  form  of  a 
radiant  angel,  or  as  one  of  the  bright  and  gay. 
But  the  words  carry  far  more  meaning  than  this. 
They  mean  that  His  experience  was  solitary,  for 
it  has  been  truly  said  that  we  know  not  what 
sorrow  is,  neither  are  we  really  acquainted  with 
grief.  We  have  seen  the  black  surface  of  the 
Stygian  pool  and  felt  the  chilling  mists  that 
rise  from  it.  But  we  have  not  penetrated  the 
ab3^ss  or  plunged  into  its  drowning  waters. 
Sorrow  has  been  our  companion.  She  has 
walked  for  a  season  by  our  side  in  black 
garments,  with  veiled  face  and  with  a  voice  of 
grief.  But  we  have  not  received  her  into  our 
flesh  and  our  heart  for  ever.  Our  Lord  was  to 
be  made  in  the  days  of  His  flesh  one  spirit  and 


So  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

one  body  with  grief.  For  him  the  veil  was  lifted 
from  death  and  hell.  In  the  hand  of  the  Lord 
there  was  a  cup  which  He  was  to  taste  for 
us,  taste  in  the  sense  that  He  should  experience 
the  full  bitterness  of  each  drop  and  be  verily 
acquainted  with  grief. 

It  was  by  degrees  that  He  reached  this  awful 
knowledge.  From  the  first  it  pleased  the  Lord 
to  bruise  Him.  He  must  have  experienced  the 
keen  pain  of  a  nature  wholly  pure  surrounded 
by  the  guilty.  When  He  comes  full  into  our 
view,  we  see  first  His  heart  of  compassion  and 
hope.  His  heart  was  touched  by  the  pain  of 
the  world.  The  voice  of  suffering  was  heard 
by  Him  in  every  wind  of  heaven,  and  rang  in 
His  ears  till  He  died.  But  for  suffering  He 
was  able  to  do  much.  He  could  speak  peace 
in  absolutions  and  blessing.  He  could  work 
His  wonderful  works  of  love.  In  the  morning 
watch,  in  the  evening  meditation,  in  the  stilling 
of  pain,  in  the  answering  of  human  needs.  He 
carried  our  sorrows.  But  as  time  went  on  He 
endured  the  contradiction  of  sinners  against 
Himself.  His  miracles  did  not  work  the  end 
He  was  striving  for.  Even  when  the  dumb 
were   speaking,    when    the    lame   were    leaping, 


THE  SORROWS  OF  THE  SAVIOUR  8i 

when  the  devils  were  fleeing,  when  the  dead 
were  rising,  His  triumph  was  incomplete.  For 
the  world  did  not  believe  His  report.  He  was 
the  arm  of  the  Lord  revealed  to  men,  and  they 
were  blinded.  For  the  sinner's  sake  He  de- 
scended into  what  we  call  hell.  He  sought  the 
outcast  in  her  trembling  shame.  He  offered 
Himself  separately  to  the  guilty  one  by  one. 
With  the  clearest  perception  of  human  suffering 
there  was  always  combined  in  Him  the  conscious- 
ness of  knowing  a  great  light  and  a  saving  name. 
His  speech  was  not  the  mere  words  of  a  human 
being,  but  the  breakers  of  the  Everlasting  Love 
itself  as  they  rolled  in  and  shattered  themselves 
on  this  bank  and  shoal  of  time.  But  He  came  to 
His  own  and  His  own  received  Him  not.  In  the 
name  of  the  law  and  the  prophets  they  rejected 
Him  in  whom  the  law  and  the  prophets  ended 
and  were  lost.  We  can  see  how  His  anguish 
rose  at  the  successive  impediments  to  His  godly 
purpose.  We  can  see  how  He  was  moved  with  an 
overwhelming  fear  for  the  rebellious  as  the  world's 
enmity  disclosed  itself  to  Him.  As  the  months 
passed  and  the  mystery  of  iniquity  and  the 
devices  of  Satan  became  more  and  more  clear, 
we    can    understand    how    He    said    to    Himself, 

F 


82  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

"  Why  art  Thou  as  a  man  ashamed,  as  a  mighty 
man  that  cannot  save  ? "  He  seemed  to  be 
striking  into  the  air,  preaching  and  toiling  with- 
out fruit.  Yet  in  Him  faith  never  staggered. 
Hope  was  never  echpsed.  Love  was  never 
dried  up.  Of  God's  fulness  He  always  received, 
and  grace  for  grace.  He  acquiesced  and  rested 
in  the  Everlasting  Love  that  foreknew  and  chose, 
and  would  give  to  Himself  the  sheep  for  whom 
He  died ;  and  yet  we  know  how  He  spake  about 
Chorazin  and  Bethsaida,  where  His  miracles 
were  done  in  vain,  and  how  He  wept  as  he 
saw  the  eyes  of  the  Jerusalem  that  slew  Him 
close  for  ever.  And  so  He  saw  the  cup  ap- 
proaching, the  cup  which  held  the  sorrow  which 
is  more  than  the  sorrow  of  a  rejected  messenger, 
even  though  the  rejected  messenger  was  the 
Eternal  Son. 

Next  there  came  what  we  may  call  the  far-off 
vision  of  the  supreme  sorrow.  He  had  known  it 
from  the  very  beginning.  But  it  grew  clearer  as 
He  advanced,  and  He  set  His  face  steadfastly  to 
go  to  Jerusalem.  He  must  suffer  many  things  of 
the  elders  and  chief  priests  and  scribes,  and  be 
killed.  The  arm  of  the  Lord  was  made  bare  in 
miracle  and  preaching,  in  flesh  and  blood,  but  it 


THE  SORROWS  OF  THE  SAVIOUR  83 

had  to  be  made  bare  in  agony  before  its  work 
was  done.  Still,  may  we  not  say  reverently  that 
the  crisis  of  His  pain  did  not  come  till  the  cup 
was  close  to  His  lips  ?  We  can  ourselves  partly 
understand  what  it  is  to  bear  a  sorrow  that  is 
deferred.  For  when  it  is  deferred,  we  picture  to 
ourselves  the  light  that  lies  beyond  it,  and  so  did 
He.  Through  the  proclamation  of  His  death 
there  rang  the  cry  of  triumph,  "  And  be  raised 
again  the  third  day,"  and  from  the  distance  He 
could  see  the  glory  of  the  resurrection  shining  on 
the  Cross.  He  knew  that  He  could  not  make  a 
tabernacle  with  His  saints  on  the  mountain,  and 
linger  always  there.  He  knew  that  the  ecstasy 
of  the  exalted  heart  must  pass  with  the  drifting 
cloud  and  with  the  withdrawing  vision.  He 
never  deceived  Himself,  as  we  do  who  know  not 
what  a  day  may  bring  forth.  We  pretend  we  do 
not  know,  and  cheat  ourselves  with  hope.  The 
delusion  helps  us.  We  even  seem  to  rise  up  by 
degrees  to  take  hold  of  life  for  a  time.  His  vision 
was  clearer,  and  still  for  Him  also  day  dawned 
after  day,  evening  after  evening  closed  in,  and 
the  dreadful  hour  was  not  yet  come.  But  it  was 
coming.  It  was  not  far  away,  and  He  always 
knew  that  through    His  ti-avail    and  agony.   His 


84  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

cross  and  wounds,  the  redemption  of  the  world 
must  be  accomphshed. 

Then  came  the  time  when  the  cup  drew  nearer 
and  nearer  to  the  pahng  hps,  and  when  manifest!}' 
the  last  hours  and  sorrows  were  nigh.     And  that 
was  Gethsemane.     That  was  the  prayer  of  prayers  : " 
'•  Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from 
me.      Nevertheless,   not  my  will,   but  Thine  be 
done."     Transcat  calix — let  this  cup  pass.     That 
we  say  is  the  prayer  of  prayers.     There  is  no 
time  in  which   we    cry   to  God    as  we    do  when 
His   sword   is  lifted   to   smite  us,  and  when  yet 
it  seems  as  if  it  might  be  turned   aside  ;  when 
the  grief  which  we  have  long  seen  with  foreboding 
tears  comes  to  us,  and  there  are  but  minutes,  or 
at  most  hours,  when  we  can  plead.     Then  the 
deep  of  misery  calls  to  the  deep  of  mercy,  and 
we   know   in   the  full  sense  what   it    is    to    pray 
Transeai  calix — let  this  cup  pass.     It  seems  as 
if    everything   we    could    desire    and    everything 
we   could    hope    for   were    summed    up    in    the 
passing  of  the  cup.     Once  the  cup  was  not   in 
sight,  or  dreamt  of,  and  yet  oftentimes  we  fancied 
that  life  was  grey.     But  now  there  is  nothing  to 
ask   but  one   thing,  and  if  that   one   thing  were 
given  we  feel   that  we   should    never   ask    from 


THE  SORROWS  OF  THE  SAVIOUR  8,5 

God  anything  more.  Let  this  cup  pass.  Let 
it  just  but  be  as  it  used  to  be,  and  we  shall 
be  more  blessed  than  we  ever  were  in  our 
wildest  dreams.  When  it  looks  as  if  the  in- 
tensity of  our  praying  might  decide  the  wavering 
balance,  how  the  heart  gathers  itself  up,  how  it 
pours  its  emotion  in  full  tide,  how  it  seems  to 
greaten  and  grow  irresistible,  as  if  it  might  even 
wrestle  with  God  and  prevail.  This  was  how 
Our  Lord  prayed  in  Gethsemane.  But  He  prayed 
as  we  cannot  always  pray,  with  perfect  submis- 
sion. We  strive  and  struggle,  we  turn  this  way 
or  that  for  a  door  of  escape,  we  would  force  our 
wills  upon  God.  But  He,  when  He  put  His 
hand  to  the  plough,  did  not  draw  back,  and 
never  once  drove  an  unsteady  furrow,  though 
His  prayer  was  for  a  greater  deliverance  than 
ever  was  asked  for  by  merely  human  lips.  For 
at  the  moment  He  went  down  into — was  lost 
and  disappeared  in — grief,  as  He  disappeared 
when  He  was  once  buried  in  the  waters  of 
baptism.  The  Lord  entered  the  awful  regions 
spoken  of  by  the  Greek  Church  as  His  unknown 
sufferings — tu  ayvM<jTa  TTaOn/xaTci.  The  rebuke 
that  broke  His  heart  was  the  gathered  rebukes  of 
all    His    people,    the    rebukes    that    else    would 


86  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

have  broken  their  hearts  for  ever  in  an  irre- 
mediable pang.  We  can  never  understand 
the  depth  of  that  suffering.  Suffice  it  that  an 
angel  came  to  help  Him  when  He  seemed  to 
be  swooning  into  death.  The  anticipation  of 
great  agony,  its  rehearsal,  is  often  the  chief 
element  in  the  agony.  When  it  is  passed  the 
worst  is  passed,  especially  if  we  know  that  the 
anguish  is  to  be  an  end  of  all  anguish,  and 
that  death  is  behind.  When  once  the  spirit 
has  sobbed  out,  "  Thy  will  be  done,"  the 
rest  seems  little.  As  the  great  heroisms  of 
life  are  often  preceded  by  inward  conflict  of 
which  the  world  knows  nothing,  but  which 
is  far  harder  than  the  outward  conflict,  so  the 
great  griefs  of  life  are  suffered  often  in  secret  ere 
they  come  to  open  manifestation.  His  warfare  in 
a  sense  was  accomplished  at  Gethsemane,  and 
thenceforth  He  strove  no  more.  He  was  led  as 
a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a  sheep  before  her 
shearers  is  dumb,  so  He  opened  not  His  mouth. 

Last  of  all  there  came  to  Him  the  sorrow  of  the 
Cross,  the  hours  of  the  open  shame  and  the  power 
of  darkness,  of  the  nails,  the  thorns,  the  hammer, 
the  bowed  head,  the  death-cry,  and  the  death. 
It    was    not    all    darkness,    for,    as    one    of    the 


THE  SORROWS  OF  THE  SAVIOUR  87 

Fathers  has  written,  He  died  in  the  risen  sun- 
shine of  God's  name,  every  cloud  flying,  and 
the  clear  sky  returning.  He  knew  that  when 
all  was  over  He  was  to  be  the  chief  corner- 
stone of  the  Eternal  City,  never  to  be  moved 
nor  disquieted  again.  There  is  a  certain  dread- 
lessness  in  Our  Lord's  agony,  a  peace,  a  serenity, 
a  feeling  of  a  travail  gone  through  and  ended, 
never  to  return.  Yet  that  we  may  remember 
His  unknown  sufferings,  that  we  may  understand 
that  He  died  as  our  substitute,  and  that  He  was 
bearing  for  the  sins  of  His  people  the  weight  of 
the  divine  wrath,  we  have  the  peace  broken  by 
the  dreadful  cry,  "  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast 
Thou  forsaken  me  ? "  Then  we  know  that  He 
has  touched  the  last  depth  of  the  last  abyss. 
And  these  things  were  done  in  the  Tree  whose 
root  and  head  was  God  I  It  was  thus  that 
-j-Love  bore  the  sin  of  the  world.  Then  the  cup 
of  wrath  was  laid  down,  and  He  took  in  His 
hand  for  ever  the  cup  of  blessing.  He  had  gone 
through  what  we  may  reverently  call  His  deep 
baptism  into  humanity,  whence  come  those  closest 
interlacings,  intercessions,  and  tenderness  of  His 
eternal  high  priesthood.  And  all  we  who  are  bap- 
tized in  Christ  Jesus  are  baptized  into  His  death. 


"A  LISTENER  UNTO  DEATH"* 

T  WISH  to  set  forth  briefly  and  simply  an  argu- 
*  ment  for  Christianity,  that  argument  for 
Christianity  which  becomes  more  and  more  con- 
vincing as  the  years  advance.  Whatever  we  may 
think  of  Christianity,  we  are  all  agreed  that  it  is 
right  to  do  right,  and  good  to  be  good.  Duty  is 
God's  compass  to  the  end  of  all  worlds.  That 
faith  remains  with  us  even  when  we  are  most 
beclouded  and  most  in  doubt. 

Now  Christianity  is  simply  a  method  of  good- 
ness. The  will  of  God  is  our  sanctification,  and 
Christianity  is  His  means  of  effecting  that  end. 
Has  it  effected  it  ?  The  answer  is  given  in 
history.  Since  the  day  on  which  Christ  died, 
or  rather  since  the  very  early  morning  when 
He  abolished  death,  there  has  been  in  the  world 
the  wonderful  Church  of  Christ.     Let  us  for  the 

*  Address  delivered  to  the  students  of  Smith  College, 
Northampton,  Mass.,  Sunday,  October  ii,  1S96. 


90  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

present  ignore  all  distinctions.  They  are  deep, 
but  the  unity  of  the  Church  is  deeper.  You 
know  that  there  are  everywhere  companies  of 
people  all  striving  after  goodness,  after  truth, 
after  purity,  and  all  of  them  confessing  Christ  as 
Lord.  To  call  upon  the  name  of  Christ  and  to 
depart  from  iniquity  is  to  be  a  member  in  full 
communion  with  the  Catholic  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ.  You  know  this  with  a  nearer  intimacy  of 
knowledge.  There  is  not  one  of  you  who  has 
not  come  close  to  one  or  more  of  those  who  are 
true  witnesses  of  the  Saviour.  Our  great  privi- 
lege in  this  life  and  our  great  responsibility  is 
that  each  of  us  has  known  some  who  through  all 
their  innocent  years  clave  to  that  which  is  good, 
lived  with  absolute  unselfishness  and  unwavering 
trust.  Though  they  never  realised  it  themselves, 
and  died  in  unconscious  simplicity  and  humility, 
it  seemed  to  us  who  were  beside  them  that  they 
were  even  in  this  life  without  fault  before  the 
throne  of  God,  and  that  they  might  face  without 
fear  that  last  scrutiny  of  the  Lord.  Whatever  we 
may  doubt,  that  remains  to  us  steadfast  and  un- 
challenged. And  if  that  remains,  everything 
remains.  In  days  when  men  make  sport  of  the 
sweetest   certainties,    the   sweet   certainty   of  the 


"A  LISTENER  UNTO  DEATH"  91 

Christian  character  abides,  and  the  other  cer- 
tainties are  involved  and  guaranteed  by  that. 
For  nothing  is  more  sure  than  that  the  Christian 
character  is  the  result  of  Christianity.  It  has 
often  been  pointed  out  that  its  very  virtues  are  a 
new  creation.  Take,  for  example,  the  virtue  of 
purity.  Who  will  dispute  that  this  virtue  was 
created  by  Christianity,  and  that  Christianity 
alone  can  save  it  ?  Remove  from  the  world  to- 
day the  companies  of  confessing  believers,  and 
you  destroy  that  fair  structure  of  aspiration  and 
achievement  which  testifies  that  Christ  has  not 
lived  and  died  in  vain.  It  is  idle  to  dispute  this. 
We  see  that  wherever  Christianity  is  openly  and 
definitely  rejected,  the  Christian  law  of  purity  is 
selected  for  immediate  attack.  Beginning  at  the 
outworks,  the  citadel  is  at  last  assailed,  and 
mankind  is  left  to  sink  back  into  the  soil  and  the 
beast. 

Observe,  in  the  second  place,  that  all  these 
members  of  Christ  unite  in  ascribing  their  victory 
over  sin  to  a  power  outside  themselves.  They 
passionately  disclaim  any  praise  of  their  own 
effort,  their  own  desire.  It  was  not  merely  by 
desiring  to  be  good  and  striving  to  be  good  that 
they  became  good.     They  all   of   them  say  A'c// 


9"2  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

nobis — not  unto  us.  They  say  that  a  power  from 
outside  nerved  the  failing  forces  of  their  will, 
guided  them,  blessed  them,  redeemed  them.  If 
we  care  to  have  theological  language,  we  shall 
hear  them  all  say  that  they  owed  everything  to 
the  succours  of  grace.  Or  if  we  care  to  listen  to 
the  last  and  deepest  word  of  Christian  experience 
on  earth,  and  to  the  new  song  in  heaven,  we 
shall  find  them  saying,  in  the  words  whose  un- 
imaginable wonder  eternity  will  not  exhaust,  that 
they  washed  their  robes  and  made  them  white  in 
the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  But  it  is  unnecessary  for 
our  purpose  to  use  theological  language  at  all. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  we  have  the  unbroken  com- 
pany of  witnesses,  the  very  flower  and  crown  of 
earth's  virtue  and  loveliness,  saying  with  one 
voice,  Non  nobis — not  unto  us.  Can  we  set  aside 
this  testimony?  The  testimony  is  that  to  those 
who  believe  in  Christ  help  is  given  by  which 
they  overcome  the  world. 

The  argument  of  Hume  against  miracles  is  well 
known.  It  is  that  the  experience  of  mankind  is 
against  the  occurrence  of  miracles,  and  that  the 
testimony  for  miracles  is  open  to  so  much  doubt 
that  the  experience  must  count  for  more  than  the 
testimony.     Certainly,  if  all  miracles  ceased  when 


"A   LISTENER   UNTO  DEATH"  93 

the  last  of  the  Apostles  died,  it  will  be  difficult  to 
meet  this  reasoning.  But  our  contention  is  that 
miracles  have  never  ceased,  and  that  they  are 
still  among  us  in  their  most  amazing  form.  It 
was  indeed  a  transcendent  experience  to  live  on 
earth  while  Christ  was  yet  in  the  flesh,  to  see 
Him  lay  His  hand  upon  brows  burning  with  fever 
and  make  them  cool,  to  hear  Him  calling  into  the 
dull,  cold  ear  of  death,  and  winning  answer  and 
obedience.  But  Our  Lord  said  Himself,  "Greater 
works  than  these  shall  ye  do,"  and  His  word  has 
been  fulfilled.  The  miracle  of  a  renewed  heart 
is  matter  of  our  knowledge  every  6ay.  So  then 
the  Church  of  Christ  is  the  argument  for  Chris- 
tianity. Balzac,  who,  whatever  else  may  be  said 
about  him,  is  assuredly  the  greatest  of  Christian 
novelists,  by  far  the  most  profound  interpreter  of 
that  mystery  of  expiation  and  redemption  which 
is  at  the  heart  of  Christianity,  has  somewhere  a 
picture  of  the  Church  of  Christ  marching  side  by 
side  with  humanity,  consoling  and  sustaining  her. 
What,  he  asks,  if  her  great  companion  were  to 
sink  down  on  the  road  and  die,  leaving  humanity 
to  go  on  her  forlorn  and  helpless  way  ?  Every- 
thing would  have  vanished  then  which  now  holds 
us  to  duty  and  to  hope. 


94  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

For  those  of  you  who  are  Christians  these  con- 
siderations have  an  obvious  message.  It  is  from 
you  that  others  will  learn  or  not  learn  of  Christ 
and  His  grace.  One  of  the  greatest  thoughts 
that  has  penetrated  English  theology  in  the 
present  generation  is  that  of  the  Incarnation  as 
hallowing  all  life.  You  are  to  carry  Christ  into 
every  sphere  of  your  activity.  *'0n  His  head 
are  many  crowns/'  and  you  are  to  crown  Him 
King  of  your  studies.  He  is  the  King  of  kings 
not  the  kings  of  earthly  descent  merel}^,  but  as 
well  the  kings  of  mind  and  heart.  Into  literature, 
into  music,  into  art,  into  the  chosen  labour  of 
your  mortal  years,  you  are  to  carry  the  thought 
of  Christ,  and  His  light  is  to  shine  forth  from  all 
these.  He  is  indeed  to  be  confessed  with  the 
lips.  That  great  duty  of  confession  which  is  put 
by  St.  Paul  as  the  primary  condition  of  salvation 
never  needed  more  to  be  enforced  than  now. 
But  besides  that  confession  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
with  the  mouth,  and  besides  that  belief  in  the 
heart  that  God  hath  raised  Him  from  the  dead, 
there  is  to  be  also  a  silent,  perpetual  acknowledg- 
ment of  Him  hallowing  everything  you  do  and 
say. 

You   cannot  live  like  this  to  the  end   without 


'•A  LISTENER  UNTO  DEATH"  95 

hearing  and  obeying  your  calls.  It  was  said  of 
Christ  Himself  that  He  was  obedient  unto  death 
— in  other  words,  a  listener  unto  death.  From 
the  first  to  the  last  Our  Lord  was  listening,  always 
listening,  for  the  still,  small  voice  of  God.  If  you 
listen,  you  will  hear  that  voice  everywhere.  You 
will  hear  it  especially  in  those  needs  of  others 
which  are  so  many  perpetual  calls.  Let  us  not 
be  deaf  to  them  until  it  is  too  late  to  answer. 
One  of  your  own  novelists  has  said  that  in  the 
resurrection  we  shall  all  of  us  first  take  to  confes- 
sion— confession  not  to  God,  but  to  the  brother 
and  sister  we  have  wronged.  Our  first  business 
will  hardly  be  with  God,  but  with  those  whom 
death  took  from  us  ere  we  could  obtain  from  them 
a  forgiveness  almost  more  necessary  than  God's 
own.     It  is  vain  for  us  to  ask  it  here. 

"  So  I  hid  my  face  in  the  grass, 
Whispered,  '  Listen  to  my  despair, 
I  repent  me  of  all  I  did. 
Speak  a  little.'  " 

But  we  find  no  place  of  repentance,  though  we 
seek  it  carefully  with  tears.  We  shall  hear  His 
call  in  nature,  which,  if  our  ears  are  open,  will  be 
vocal  with  remonstrance  and  appeal.  Walking  in 
a  wood  this  afternoon,  I  thought  of  Balzac's  words 


96  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

on  the  subduing  and  mysterious  influence  of  a 
forest,  which  he  ascribes  to  the  subhme  and 
subtle  effect  of  the  presence  of  so  many  creatures, 
all  obedient  to  their  destinies,  immovable  in  sub- 
mission. Christ  was  always  listening  to  the 
voice  of  nature,  to  the  voice  of  men,  to  the  multi- 
tude on  whom  He  had  compassion.  And  God 
spoke  through  them  to  His  soul. 

And  we  must  be  listeners  unto  death.  We 
most  of  us  hear  quickly  and  well  at  first.  When 
we  are  young  we  see  visions  and  dream  dreams, 
and  the  high  voices  fall  on  us  not  in  vain.  But 
we  grow  old  and  deaf  and  dull.  We  decline  from 
the  lofty,  the  generous,  the  unselfish  passion 
that  makes  youth  so  beautiful.  That  it  need  not 
be  so  Our  Lord  has  shown  us.  He  was  a  listener 
unto  death,  and  we,  like  Him,  may  keep  listening 
through  the  years  of  labour,  and  grief,  and  dis- 
enchantment, and  failure,  till  we  hear  the  last 
solemn  call  to  go  forth  from  these  things  and  hear 
it  undismayed. 

"  All  in  the  wild  March  morning  I  heard  the  angels  call ; 
It  was  when  the  moon  was  setting,  and  the  dark  was  over 

all; 
The  trees  began  to  whisper,  and  the  wind  began  to  roll, 
And  in  the  wild  Maixh  morning  I  heard  them  call  my  soul." 


THE  WISDOM  OF  GOD  IN  A 
MYSTERY* 

"T^  R.  WHYTE  has  written  an  admirable  ap- 
'-^  preciation  of  Jacob  Bohme.  It  is  perhaps 
the  best  thing  he  has  yet  pubHshed,  and  only 
those  who  know  something  of  Bohme  will  do 
justice  to  the  care  and  thoroughness  with  which 
the  work  has  been  done.  What  is  far  more 
important  in  such  a  connection  is  sympathy,  and 
of  this  Dr.  Whyte  has  a  full  measure.  He  has  a 
real  aflinity  with  the  mystics.  It  is  true  that 
Jacob  Bohme,  by  the  amazing  splendour  of  his 
genius,  has  forced  his  personality  upon  all  serious 
thinkers.  But  the  inner  circle  who  regard  him 
with  peculiar  reverence,  the  quiet  congregation  to 
whom  he  steadily  makes  his  appeal,  read  him 
with    other    eyes,    and    they    will    recognise    Dr. 

*  "  Jacob   Behmen.      An   Appreciation."      By  Alexander 
Whyte,  D.D.     (Oliphant,  Anderson  &  Ferrier. ) 

G 


98  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

Whyte  as  one  of  themselves.  In  short,  the 
Edinburgh  preacher  knows  what  Bohme  is  saying. 
That  is  enough.  Nothing  less  would  have  been 
enough.  The  mystics  understand  one  another. 
"  Deep  calleth  unto  deep,"  and  the  message  is 
understood,  though  to  the  outer  world  it  be  no 
more  than  the  chattering  of  sparrows  or  the 
hooting  of  owls. 

The  appearance  of  this  little  volume  gives 
occasion  for  some  thoughts  on  the  position  of 
mysticism  in  the  Church  of  Christ.  The  mystics 
have  never  failed  us,  and  sometimes,  though  very 
rarely,  their  influence  has  been  wide  and  obvious. 
The  critical  movement  of  the  present  day  is  not 
likely  to  find  its  legitimate  end  in  mysticism,  but 
mysticism  will  make  its  own  contribution  to  the 
theology  of  the  not  far  distant  future.  In  the 
first  place,  mysticism  teaches  the  entire  depend- 
ence of  the  spirit  of  man  on  the  Spirit  of  God. 
The  text  to  which  Jacob  Bohme  especially  clave 
was,  *'  How  much  more  shall  your  heavenly 
Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask 
Him."  Good  thoughts,  in  the  mystical  view,  are 
the  free  children  of  God,  and  do  not  come  by 
thinking.  "  It  is  not  I,  but  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
doth  it  in  such  measure  as  He  pleaseth,"  is  the 


THE   WISDOM  OF  GOD  IN  A   MYSTERY  99 

burden  of  BGhme's  profession.  In  the  works  of 
William  Law  we  find  the  same  truth  insisted  on 
with  even  greater  emphasis.  Reason  to  Law  is 
the  first  and  last  grand  deceiver  of  mankind.  A 
mystery  is  the  deep  and  true  ground  of  all  things. 
Perhaps,  however,  it  would  be  correct  to  say  that 
what  impressed  Bohme  and  Law  so  deeply  was 
not  so  much  the  failure  of  the  reason  as  the 
failure  of  nature.  They  could  not  have  denied 
the  legitimate  function  of  the  natural  reason 
among  natural  things.  What  struck  their  hearts 
with  wonder  was  the  absolute  failure  of  the 
natural  man  at  his  highest  to  come  within  sight 
or  sound  of  spiritual  things.  It  may  be  doubted 
whether  the  mystics  go  further  than  Our  Lord  and 
His  apostles.  '*  A  man  can  receive  nothing, 
except  it  be  given  him  from  heaven."  St.  Paul 
dwells  with  profound  solemnity  upon  the  mystery 
of  divine  knowledge.  He  spoke  the  wisdom  of 
God  in  a  mystery,  or,  as  we  might  say,  in  a 
whisper.  The  substance  of  his  message  was 
mystery,  and  therefore  in  form  it  was  also  a 
mystery.  True,  the  great  facts  of  Christian 
redemption  are  set  before  the  opening  eyes  of 
faith,  and  whosoever  looks  is  saved.  But  these 
facts  have  around  them,  above  them,  beneath  them, 


loo  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

a  rich  and  subtle  philosophy.  All  the  counsel  of 
God,  from  the  eternal  election  till  the  final  setting 
of  the  Church  in  glory,  makes  up  this  wisdom. 
To  understand  even  the  least  part  of  it  we  need 
the  illumination  of  the  Spirit,  and  so  each  scholar 
in  the  great  school  where  all  Zion's  children  are 
taught  of  God  is,  like  Jesus  Christ,  a  **  listener 
unto  death."  To  the  natural  man  all  is  darkness  ; 
and  for  the  spiritual  man  even  the  unveiling  is 
slow.  We  are,  as  it  were,  set  in  face  of  a  curtain, 
which  is  gradually  lifted  as  we  gaze  in  prayer. 
Whenever  we  turn  away  it  drops  again.  To 
those  who  have  looked  long  and  eagerly  it  dis- 
closes at  last  the  very  depths  of  the  sanctities  of 
heaven. 

Since  this  is  the  way  to  divine  knowledge,  we 
cannot  rightly  speak  of  such  things  as  the  simple 
Gospel.  There  is  no  simple  Gospel.  Neither 
can  we  draw  the  frontiers  of  truth  with  geometrical 
exactness.  Overmuch  definiteness  in  a  creed  is  a 
sign  of  its  falsity.  As  Edward  Irving  said  in  his 
great  days,  "To  my  certain  knowledge  the 
atmosphere  of  theology  hath  been  so  long  clear 
and  cloudless  that  there  hath  been  neither  mist 
nor  rain  these  many  years,  and  even  to  talk  of  a 
mvstery  is   out  of   date.     But  thotc  must  preach 


THE  WISDOM  OF  GOD  IN  A  MYSTERY       loi 

Christ  in  a  mystery."  Bohmenism  had  its  first 
vogue  in  England  when  a  cold  and  hard  Calvinism 
was  dominant.  We  do  not  know  that  sufficient 
stress  has  been  laid  on  the  fact  that  some  of  the 
English  translations  of  Bohme  were  published  by 
Giles  Calvert,  the  official  publisher  to  George  Fox. 
The  grand  passage  of  George  Fox,  written  at  the 
age  of  twenty-four,  and  beginning,  *'  Now  was  I 
come  up  in  spirit  through  the  flaming  sword,"  is 
surely  an  echo  of  Bohme,  and  if  this  be  so,  the 
mystic  must  be  credited  with  no  small  share  in 
the  origination  of  Quakerism. 

Next,  the  mystics  teach  that  delight  in  God  is 
the  true  happiness  of  life.  In  manifold  forms 
they  proclaim  that  all  the  happiness  or  misery  of 
all  creatures  consists  only  in  this,  that  they  are 
more  or  less  possessed  of  God,  or,  as  one  of  the 
best  of  them  puts  it,  "  We  have  no  want  of 
religion  but  so  far  as  we  want  to  better  our  state 
in  God."  The  object  of  mysticism  is  indeed  a 
closer  union  with  the  divine.  To  sink  in  the 
depths  of  God  is  the  crowning,  ineffable  joy. 
They  claim  to  have  realised  it,  "  The  triumph 
that  was  then  in  my  soul  I  can  neither  tell 
or  describe.  I  can  only  liken  it  to  a  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead."      IBohme  says  that  he  found 


I02  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

him  self  in  a  seven  days'  soul-sabbath,  where  he 
looked  into  the  mystery  of  God  as  into  an  open 
secret,  where  he  regained  the  flower  of  paradise 
in  the  new  man.  Thus  possessing  God,  he 
possessed  nature.  As  Wordsworth  said  long- 
after  : 

"By  grace  divine, 
Not  otherwise,  O  Nature,  we  are  thine." 

Can  it  be  said  that  this  conflicts  with  the  Bible 
view  of  religion  ?  Can  it  be  said  that  such 
experiences  are  common  in  the  Church  of  to-day  ? 
May  we  achieve  such  a  sense  and  possession  of 
God  as  shall  carry  us  over  our  griefs  and  help  us 
to  do  our  drudgery  with  an  incredible  lightness 
of  heart  ?  Let  us  not  too  quickly  deny  the  reality 
of  what  the  saints  have  known.  "  You  are  dis- 
appointed," said  the  Franciscan  to  Madame  Guyon, 
"  because  you  seek  without  what  you  have  within. 
Accustom  yourself  to  seek  God  in  your  heart,  and 
you  will  find  Him."  When  she  ceased  from  her 
own  works  in  obedience  to  this  word,  God  took 
possession  of  her  soul.  She  prayed  without 
ceasing.  Her  heart  was  filled  with  a  sense  of 
peace  and  possession.  Time  was  annihilated, 
and  love  became  the  habit  of  the  heart.  The 
books  of  the   mystics  are   witnesses,   whenever 


THE  WISDOM  OF  GOD  IN  A   MYSTERY        103 

faith  sinks,  of  the  possibiHties  open  to  the  behev- 
ing  and  surrendered  soul. 

It  almost  necessarily  follows  that  the  m3'stics 
are  not  always  intelligible.  The  action  of 
mysticism  on  the  spirit  may  perhaps  best  be 
compared  to  the  action  of  music.  It  is  not 
possible  to  put  into  words  all  the  emotions  the 
high  strain  raises.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  justify  to 
the  man  who  has  no  ear  the  feelings  which  music 
excites.  In  one  of  his  dialogues  William  Law 
puts  this  very  well.  He  says  that  his  neighbour, 
John  the  Shepherd,  "  when  he  comes  home  from 
the  field  in  winter  evenings,  listens  sometimes  to 
the  Scriptures  and  sometimes  to  Jacob  Buhme 
read  by  his  wife."  He  confesses  that  he  under- 
stands only  a  little  of  either,  but  maintains  that, 
whether  he  understands  or  not,  the  heavenly 
flame  is  kindled  in  his  soul.  He  quotes  the  lofty 
words  in  Revelation  which  describe  the  eternal 
throne,  and  says,  with  much  justice,  that  it  is 
better  that  the  heart  should  be  kindled  by  them  to 
bow  down  with  the  elders  than  that  it  should 
trouble  about  what  Hebrew  and  Greek  scholars 
can  tell  of  the  passage.  No  doubt  this  may  be 
pushed  to  extremity.  To  exclude  entirely  distinct 
form   and   expression  from    the    apprehension  of 


I04  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

spiritual  truth,  is  to  reduce  that  truth  to  some- 
thing hke  a  fire-mist.  We  start  with  the  Apostles 
from  a  disc  of  really  apprehended  dogma.  The 
rays  reflected  are  at  first  not  clear.  It  is  only  as 
the  spiritual  life  proceeds  that  we  keep  transfer- 
ring new  truths  from  the  region  of  mysticism  to 
that  of  clear  apprehension,  adding  all  the  while  to 
those  perceived  only  in  the  first  stage.  Emotion 
both  interprets  and  transcends  language.  It 
takes  a  catastrophe  to  bring  the  tremendous 
meaning  even  of  the  commonest  words  thoroughly 
home.  How  much  truer  is  this  of  words  that  try 
to  compass  and  reveal  the  experiences  of  the 
spirit.  The  Bible  is  not  anywhere  to  us  what  it 
was  twenty  years  ago.  Passages  we  then  passed 
over  as  meaningless  now  take  hold  of  us  as  with 
living  hands.  One  may  doubt  whether  the  highest 
spiritual  truth  will  ever  go  into  words.  The  most 
poetical  region  of  all,  says  a  living  mystic,  is  that 
which  is  incapable  of  taking  the  form  of  poetr}'. 
The  realities  take  away  the  breath  that  would,  if 
it  could,  give  them  forth  in  song.  Some  things 
are  impossible  to  utter,  and  other  things  it  is 
unlawful  to  utter.  Over  such  truths  the  spirit 
wanders  brooding  till  it  becomes  vocal,  and  that 
is  the  utterance  we  have  from  mystics.    Mysticism 


THE  WISDOM  OF  GOD  IN  A  MYSTERY        105 

is  the  science  of  love — that  love  which  supersedes 
the  sacraments,  that  love  which  the  Apostle  saw 
lasting  while  tongues  ceased,  prophecy  failed, 
knowledge  vanished  away,  and  the  princes  of  this 
world  came  to  nought. 

Mysticism  has  often  been  charged  with  the 
establishment  of  a  church  within  the  Church,  or 
rather  an  eccksiola  in  ccclcsia.  This  has  little 
relevance  so  far  as  Bohme  is  concerned,  for  he 
himself  adhered  to  the  Lutheran  Church  and  died 
in  its  communion.  He  did  not  encourage  the 
establishment  of  sects.  Bohme  spoke  to  the 
initiated.  The  phrase,  "  Enough  to  those  that  are 
Ours "  {Mystcriiim  Magnum^  Gen.  xliii.  32),  is 
characteristic. 

"  God  has  a  few  of  us  whom  He  whispers  in  the  ear; 
The    rest    may    reason  and   welcome ;    'tis   we   musicians 
know," 

The  idea  of  a  one  and  only  perfect  visible  Church 
did  not  appeal  to  the  mystics.  But  \\\€\x  cccksioJa 
was  rather  a  vcrcin  than  a  gcuicindc,  a  religious 
club  rather  than  a  regular  church  and  congrega- 
tion. The  New  Testament  knows  nothing  of 
class  religion,  and  seriously  discourages  the  need- 
less formation  of  sects.  But  may  it  not  be  sug- 
gested that  one  great  need  of  the  present  time  is 


io6  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

that  those  bent  on  the  re-animation  of  lingering 
causes  and  the  revival  of  forgotten  truths  should 
quietly  associate  themselves  together  to  further 
the  common  end  ?  There  is  too  much  isolation 
among  us.  One  man  with  strong  convictions 
may  be  able  to  do  something,  but  if  properly 
reinforced  by  others  of  the  same  mind  he  might 
do  far  more.  Dr.  Whyte,  we  have  no  doubt, 
agrees  with  us  that  mysticism  is  not  meant  for 
the  Church  at  large.  He  would,  however,  do 
great  service  if  he  organised  the  few  to  whom  the 
subject  appeals.  If  we  had  space  to  dwell  on 
this  fascinating  theme,  we  should  like  to  say 
something  of  the  English  Bohmenists.  Their 
lives  have  not  been  written,  nor  is  there,  so  far 
as  we  know,  any  clear  indication  of  the  two 
periods  when  Bohmenism  was  a  power  in  the 
religious  development  of  our  country. 

Whatever  be  said  of  his  theology  and  philo- 
sophy, no  one  can  deny  that  Jacob  Bohme's 
portion  in  life  was  the  enjoyment  of  God.  The 
story  of  his  beautiful  and  sacred  death  cannot  be 
told  too  often.  Shortly  after  midnight  one  Sabbath 
he  overheard  the  Avorship  of  the  world  of  spirits. 
He  called  his  son  Tobias,  and  asked  him  if  he  did 
not    hear    that    sweet,    harmonious    music.     The 


THE   WISDOM  OF  GOD  IN  A   MYSTERY        107 

door  was  set  wide  that  he  might  Hsten  more 
peacefully.  Then,  smitten  with  desire,  he  ex- 
claimed, "  O  Thou  strong  God  of  Sabaoth,  deliver 
me  according  to  Thy  will,"  and  immediately  after- 
wards, "  Thou  crucified  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  have 
mercy  upon  me,  and  take  me  to  Thyself  in  Thy 
kingdom."  A  little  later  the  prayer  was  answered, 
and  with  the  words,  "  Now  I  go  hence  to  Paradise," 
he  entered  in.  Over  his  grave  at  Gorlitz,  which 
is  still  a  place  of  pilgrimage,  is  inscribed,  "  Here 
rests  Jacob  Bohme,  born  of  God,  died  in  Christ 
sealed  with  the  Holy  Spirit." 


THE  PRAYER-MEETING 

/^^EORGE  MACDONALD  describes  in  one 
^-^  of  his  books  a  prayer-meeting  or  week-day 
service  in  a  Kentish  Town  chapel.  The  preacher 
was  a  stickit  minister  from  Scotland.  Few 
people  even  in  the  North  are  now  aware  of  the 
tragedy  that  accompanied  pulpit  failure.  In 
these  days  of  diminished  sensitiveness  and  in- 
creased fluency  the  agony  seems  inconceivable ; 
but  to  this  stickit  minister  the  hour  of  anguish, 
though  it  had  gone  past  some  thirty  years,  was 
still  vivid.  It  overshadowed  his  spirit.  He 
called  back  the  place  and  the  day — a  Scotch 
village,  his  own  village,  a  golden  wind  blowing 
on  a  wavy  harvest  morning,  little  clouds  floating 
in  the  sunny  blue,  the  church  filled  with  well- 
known  faces  upturned  and  critical.  Then  came 
swiftly  the  moment  of  collapse  when  he  failed 
utterly,  pitifully,  while  his  mother  wept  low,  and 
his  father  clutched  hands  of  despair  behind   the 


no       THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

tails  of  his  Sunday  coat.  The  three  went  home 
together  in  speechless  sorrow  and  despair,  and 
the  hour  vanished  in  a  slow  mist  of  abject  misery 
and  shame.  It  was  only  very  long  after,  when 
he  was  growing  old,  that  he  again  opened  his 
mouth  to  preach  Christ,  and  then  it  was  in  cir- 
cumstances the  dreariness  of  which  depressed 
him.  That  huge  slug  the  Coiiiiiionp/acc,  the 
wearifullest  dragon  to  fight  in  the  whole  creation, 
the  monster  whom  you  may  wound  but  cannot 
kill,  holds  great  sway  in  the  north-west  of 
London  and  was  then  specially  powerful  in  dis- 
senting chapels.  Never  more  so  in  his  beauty- 
blasting,  depressing  power  than  on  the  night  of 
the  weekly  prayer-meeting,  and  that  night  a 
drizzling  one.  The  steaming  glare  of  the  yellow 
lights  that  filled  the  lower  part  of  the  chapel,  the 
ugly  twilight  that  possessed  the  yawning  galleries, 
seemed  to  illuminate  the  monster  whose  faintly 
gelatinous  bulk  filled  the  whole  place.  There 
were  but  nine  hearers,  and  at  first  it  seemed  as  if 
their  faces  were  but  ganglions  of  the  beast. 
None  of  them  was  fit  to  deal  him  one  of  those 
blows  which  he  suffers  from  every  sunrise,  every 
repentance,  every  childbirth,  and  every  true  love. 
Stay !     there    was    one,    a    brooding,    careworn 


THE  PRAYER-MEETING  iii 

countenance  of  a  woman  who  had  a  Hfe  of 
labour  and  vanished  children  lying  behind  her. 
She  was  racked  with  the  enigma  of  how  to 
pay  her  rent,  consumed  with  pitiful  worries,  and 
her  look  gave  the  preacher  strength  to  tell  the 
story  of  sun  and  breeze,  of  resurrection  and  up- 
lifting, of  organ  blasts  and  exultation  which  has 
been  written  for  every  spirit  which  Satan  hath 
bound.  At  that  time  there  was  little  suspicion 
of  neology.  The  monster  was  growling  in  Ger- 
man jungles,  but  could  not  cross  the  sea.  The 
preaching  gave  the  poor  widow  "  strength  in  my 
heart  to  bear  up,  and  that  is  better  than  money." 
She  was  not  one  to  take  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
by  force,  but  one  to  creep  quietly  into  it  if  a 
gentle  hand  took  hers. 

From  the  same  region  of  London,  a  region, 
which  has  had  a  strange  fascination  for  our 
dissenting  writers — for  is  it  not  there  that  Mark 
Rutherford  fixes  the  story  of  **  The  Modern 
Martyr "  who  resisted  the  will  to  die  and  went 
on  quietly  in  spite  of  the  evolutionist  correcting 
exercises  in  Euclid  ? — comes  another  and  much 
more  cordial  testimony  to  the  helpfulness  of  the 
week-night  service.  Thomas  Lynch,  whose  in- 
domitable   spirit    never    yielded    to    the    misery 


112  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

of  his  surroundings,  his  scanty  audiences,  and 
his  dreary  chapels,  left  behind  him  a  paper  on 
the  subject.  He  urged  that  men  often  die  of  the 
businesses  by  which  they  strive  to  live.  Anxiety 
dulls,  frets,  and  then  kills  them.  But  if  a  man 
can  walk  and  talk  with  his  God  in  the  cool  of  a 
hot  day,  the  morrow's  burden  will  be  less  heavy ; 
or  if  he  has  a  childlike  gladness  in  seeing  the 
evening  lamp  lighted  in  the  holy  place,  and  in 
both  seeing  and  smelling  the  evening  incense  as 
it  curls  heavenward,  the  air  of  next  morning  will 
be  sweeter  to  him,  and  its  light  will  awaken  him 
to  hope.  If  in  winter  time  he  will  sit  by  the  fire- 
side of  the  church  in  brotherly  love  to  all  saints, 
he  will  be  less  likely  to  drowse  and  sigh  by  his 
own.  And  if  in  summer  time  he  will  walk  with 
companions  in  the  garden  of  the  Lord  as  heaven 
and  earth  are  communing  sweetly  and  sacredly 
together  in  the  twilight,  he  will  not  walk  moodily 
about  his  own  garden  complaining  that  after  all 
its  chief  productions  are  the  worm  and  the  cater- 
pillar. This  is  a  good  word,  and  we  have  no 
doubt  as  to  the  blessing  ministered  to  many  souls 
by  quiet  little  week-evening  meetings.  We  are 
thinking,  however,  of  services  where  the  main 
business  is    not    preaching,    but    prayer.      Is    it 


THE  PRAYER-MEETING  113 

possible  that  the  work  of  any  cliurch  can  be 
satisfactorily  carried  on  where  prayer  is  not 
deliberately  organised  and  practised  ?  Prayer- 
meetings  in  the  true  sense  are  not  week-evening 
services,  in  that  preaching,  save  as  it  helps 
petitions,  is  of  no  account.  For  a  week-evening 
service  it  is  natural  that  a  minister  should  seek  a 
large  audience.  He  is  to  be  excused  if  he  presses 
the  duty  of  attendance  upon  his  people.  Where 
many  come  there  is  indubitable  proof  that  his 
words  are  prized.  Week- evening  services,  we 
suppose,  cannot  be  kept  up  with  spirit  unless  a 
certain  number  are  present,  and  we  believe  that 
in  many  places  they  are  abandoned  for  a  large 
part  of  the  year,  and  in  some  given  over  alto- 
gether. This  does  not  apply  to  the  ideal  prayer- 
meeting.  It  is  constituted  under  the  charter  of 
Christ.  "If  two  of  you  shall  agree  on  earth  as 
touching  anything  that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be 
done  for  them  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 
Two,  therefore,  form  a  sufficient  and  a  prevailing 
meeting  for  prayer.  Neither  of  them  needs  to  be 
eloquent,  but  both  must  be  very  much  in  earnest. 
To  urge  people  to  come  to  a  prayer-meeting 
seems  incongruous.  They  should  be  urged  to 
pray,  and  they  should  be  taught  that  prayer  in 

H 


114  T^HE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

the  highest  sense  cannot  be  single.  Then  they 
must  be  left.  If  sympathetic  souls  find  their  way  to 
the  gathering,  and  are  able  to  enter  with  fulness  of 
heart  into  the  supplication,  great  spiritual  issues 
will  be  decided.  On  the  other  hand,  to  have  a  num- 
ber of  hearers  none  of  them  fully  imbued  with  the 
spirit  and  faith  of  prayer,  is  an  unmitigated  calamity. 
It  may  be  said  with  confidence  that  a  large  prayer- 
meeting  is  very  often  no  prayer-meeting. 

But  surely  from  every  church,  even  the  hum- 
blest and  poorest,  two  might  be  found  to  make  a 
prayer-meeting.  What  is  the  power  of  two  as 
contrasted  with  the  power  of  one  ? 

In  the  first  place,  when  two  agree  as  touching 
what  they  shall  ask,  there  is  reason  to  hope  that 
a  corrective  element  will  be  applied  to  the  peti- 
tions. Isolated,  we  grow  selfish ;  the  burden  of 
our  own  sad  need  presses  upon  us  too  heavily, 
the  lower  forms  of  desire  and  passion  assert  their 
sway.  There  are,  it  has  been  said,  three  forms 
of  prayer — the  evil,  the  non-moral,  and  the 
spiritual.  That  there  are  evil  prayers — sordid, 
selfish  and  base — we  know.  We  doubt  whether 
there  are  non-moral  prayers.  For  as  we  are 
always  drawn  out  in  tenderness  for  any  one 
who  we  see  is  looking  to  us  in  great  expecta- 


THE  PRAYER-MEETING  115 

tion  and  tenderly  confiding  in  us,  this  must  also 
be  true  of  God.  He  will  grieve  a  little  because 
we  so  persistently  ask  Him  for  the  lower,  because 
wc  think  so  much  more  of  meat  and  drink  and 
clothes  for  the  body  than  of  God  and  love  and 
truth  for  the  soul.  He  longs  that  only  we  would 
put  things  in  the  right  order,  and  seek  the  best 
first ;  but  He  knows  that  we  must  be  guided 
gently,  and  so  in  the  New  Testament  no  stern 
distinction  is  drawn  between  temporal  and  spiri- 
tual blessings,  and  the  largest  possible  encourage- 
ment is  given  to  all  souls  to  pray.  So  much  is 
the  encouragement  that  perhaps  nine-tenths  of 
the  sermons  on  prayer  consist  of  warnings  not  to 
expect  too  much.  God  knows  that  if  we  once 
come  close  to  Him,  if  our  hearts  touch  His,  we 
shall  grow  in  grace  and  wisdom,  and  find  that 
even  in  the  promise  the  half  was  not  told  us. 
We  learn  from  this  contact  that  prayer  prevails 
not  merely  in  that  it  subsides  into  God's  will  and 
takes  the  fact  as  decided  in  our  faith,  but  that  it 
brings  a  reason  for  God's  hearing  us  and  giving 
the  thing  requested,  as  otherwise  He  would  not 
have  a  call  to  do.  Besides,  what  strength  and 
depth  of  Christian  communion  there  is  between 
two  souls  that  have  entered  into  a  true  league  of 


Ii6  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

prayer,  when  each  is  not  afraid  to  unbare  to  the 
other  his  whole  heart,  and  when  everything  that 
is  merely  selfish  fades  away  and  is  ashamed  in 
the  light  of  the  divine  love  ! 

Not  only  is  it  well  that  two  should  agree  in 
prayer  because  in  this  way  the  lower  elements  of 
petitions  subside,  but  in  ways  we  cannot  fully 
understand  the  addition  of  will  to  will  increases 
the  force  of  prayer.  On  this  subject  Bushnell 
has  some  wise  remarks.  He  is  commenting  on 
the  palmary  promises  given  by  Our  Lord  to  im- 
portunity. He  protests  against  the  exaggeration 
which  demands  that  we  are  to  renounce  all  will 
to  begin  with,  as  if  the  will  were  part  of  our 
human  nature  which  God  does  not  care  to  see, 
makes  no  account  of,  and  will  not  cherish.  True, 
the  will  must  not  push  itself  on  God's  will  when 
God's  will  is  known,  but  we  often  do  not  know, 
and  we  must  hold  on  with  inflexible  tenacity 
until  we  do.  Many  of  our  prayers  have  no  will ; 
they  are  dawdling,  feeble  and  futile.  But  Christ 
commends  with  especial  heartiness  the  prayer 
that  will  take  no  denial,  that  does  not  faint,  and 
that  succeeds  by  importunity.  This  tenacity  is 
will,  and  God  looks  oii  our  will  as  a  central  part 
of  our  personality.     He  means  to  ennoble  it,  and 


THE  PRAYER-MEETING  117 

not  to  crush  it.  There  are  many  prayers  that 
can  only  be  answered  by  the  action  of  a  great 
will  force  in  man.  How,  for  instance,  is  one  to 
recover  health  when  he  discourages  soul  and 
body  in  consenting  to  have  no  will  "bout  the 
matter  save  in  prayer  ?  Then  it  has  to  be 
remembered  that  God  is  always  answering  prayer 
on  the  ground  of  the  largest  reasons.  All  God's 
purposes  are  set  by  God's  reason,  even  as  clocks 
are  by  the  sun,  though  the  purposes  may  be  as  in 
everlasting  counsel  before  the  prayers  are  made. 
And  so  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  God  is 
always  considering  as  to  what  the  most  and 
weightiest  things  and  people  agree — where  an}' 
prayer  for  health  makes  as  strong  a  suit  as  the 
sensuality  and  pride  petitioning  for  disease,  where 
so  many  Christian  people  praying  for  the  times 
can  pray  down  what  the  times  themselves  invoke. 
The  only  true,  earnest  way  of  praying  is  to  get 
as  many  things  to  pray  with  you  as  possible,  and 
as  few  to  pray  against.  We  may  have  little 
power,  but  surely  each  of  us  may  find  one  soul, 
and  when  two  agree  in  pra3'er  there  is  an  illimit- 
able promise.  We  shall  try  to  consider  what 
modificntion  the  frank  adoption  of  this  great 
principle  would  make  on  the  life  of  our  churches. 


"IF  TWO  OF  YOU  SHALL  AGREE" 

T  N  the  opinion  of  some  who  still  profess  to 
•'■  be  Christians,  the  idea  of  asidng  and 
receiving  from  God  is  a  fond  superstition  or  a 
pitiable  weakness.  But  asking  and  receiving  are 
of  the  essence  of  prayer,  and  it  is  no  true 
prayer-meeting  where  the  main  attraction  is 
the  preaching  of  short,  bright  sermons,  or  even 
common  meditation  on  divine  themes.  Neither 
is  it  a  prayer-meeting  where  prayer  is  viewed 
as  a  spiritual  gymnastic,  beneficial  to  the  sup- 
pliant, but  otherwise  of  no  account.  If  God  is 
absent,  or  bound  in  the  chains  of  inexorable  law, 
there  can  be  no  true  prayer.  And  it  is  the 
caricature  and  counterfeit  of  all  devotion  to  say 
with  some  mystics  that  the  will  must  be 
annihilated,  and  that  there  is  no  permissible 
prayer  but  the  Prayer  of  Silence — Thy  ivill  be 
done.  Madame  Guyon  told  Bossuet  that  she  was 
unable    to    pray    for    any    particular    thing — the 


I20  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

forgiveness  of  sins,  for  instance.  To  do  so  was 
to  fail  in  absolute  abandonment  and  disinterested- 
ness. It  is  true  that  we  evermore  enter  into 
God  through  death,  but  God  works  in  man,  and 
not  instead  of  man.  Over  against  this  negation 
we  set  the  teaching  of  Our  Lord  and  His 
Apostles,  and  earnestly  seek  to  break  once  more 
the  seals  of  prayer. 

"  If  two  of  you  shall  agree."  Two  are  enough 
to  form  a  prayer-meeting,  and  what  church  is  so 
poor  as  not  to  be  able  to  furnish  them  ?  No 
machinery  is  needed,  no  announcement,  nothing 
but  the  complete  and  sacred  agreement  of  two 
believers.  When  these  come  together,  they  will 
come  to  pray.  They  will  doubtless  taste  the 
good  word  of  God  and  the  powers  of  the  world 
to  come,  that  their  hearts  may  be  stirred  up. 
They  will  enter  into  a  profound  spiritual  friend- 
ship, into  the  inmost  depths  of  one  another's 
souls.  They  will  have  much  to  ask  for  them- 
selves. But  their  main  business  will  be  inter- 
cession, and  intercession  is  at  once  the  highest 
and  most  difficult  form  of  prayer.  Our  Lord 
Jesus,  that  Great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  inter- 
cedes before  the  Father,  and  His  sacred  function, 
as  Dr.  Denney  has  pointed  out,  is  mentioned  by 


'•IF  TWO  OF  YOU  SHALL  AGREE"  121 

the  Apostles  with  a  kind  of  adoring  awe,  which  is 
quite  pecuHar  even  in  the  New  Testament.  "  It 
seems  to  have  impressed  them  as  one  of  the 
unimaginable  wonders  of  Redemption,  something 
which  in  love  went  far  beyond  all  that  we  could 
ask  or  think.  When  inspired  thought  touches  it 
it  rests  as  on  an  unsurpassable  height."  The 
intercession  of  Christ  is  the  culmination  of  His 
priesthood,  the  crowning  act  of  that  love  of 
which  the  foundations  were  laid  on  Calvar}'. 
Our  intercession  is  a  spark  from  the  altar  which 
burns  day  and  night  before  the  Lord  in  heaven. 
And  therefore  it  is  not  easy,  not  light,  but  hard 
and  costly.  It  is  a  voice  calling  from  that  estate 
of  misery  which  has  no  explanation  but  the  Fall 
and  no  remedy  but  the  Cross.  Real  intercession 
wades  as  deep  as  love.  It  has  hours  that  in 
their  measure  are  like  the  Lord's  Gethsemane  : 
"  I  have  great  heaviness  and  continual  sorrow  ol 
heart  for  my  brethren,  my  kinsmen  according  to 
the  flesh."  The  great  intercessors  of  the  world 
are  secretly  and  immediately  called  by  Christ 
Himself,  even  as  He,  the  Man  of  the  Cross,  was 
called  of  God  :  "  I  sought  for  a  man  among  them 
that  should  make  up  the  hedge  and  stand  in  the 
gap   before   me."     To   suppose  that  the   duty  of 


122  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

intercession  is  fulfilled  by  attending  what  is 
called  a  hearty  prayer-meeting,  to  suppose  that 
it  is  completed  when  a  list  of  names  is  called 
over,  is  fundamentally  to  misunderstand.  Inter- 
cession charges  itself  with  the  want,  the  woe,  the 
load,  the  care,  the  sin,  the  anguish  of  all  for 
whom  it  pleads. 

When  two  come  together  for  intercession  they 
will,  first  of  all,  pray  for  the  church  they  are 
representing.  Few  things  are  more  wonderful 
than  the  service  of  unknown  intercessors  to 
humble  churches  of  Christ.  How  many  men 
and  women  there  have  been,  whose  names  were 
never  tossed  about  in  the  great  world,  who  had 
no  eloquence  and  no  wealth  and  no  learning,  but 
who  by  their  continual  and  prevailing  pra3^ers 
made  safe  and  sweet  and  blessed  some  corner  of 
God's  vineyard  on  earth  !  They  prayed  from  the 
depths  of  serene  and  strong  hearts,  and  their 
prayers  were  answered.  With  what  profound 
and  passionate  affection  the  very  least  of  our 
churches  is  regarded  by  one  or  two !  How 
many  of  them  have  refused  to  perish,  when  it 
often  seemed  as  if  they  might  go  out,  like  the 
"  cresset's  flame  that  the  rough  wind  slew  last 
night."     They  have  lived  because  their  very  dust 


"IF  TWO  OF  YOU  SHALL  AGREE"  123 

was  dear  to  some  among  the  saints,  and  for  that 
they  are  Hving  still.  There  are,  perhaps,  hopeful 
signs  of  a  great  and  needed  change  in  our  con- 
ception of  the  services  of  the  Church.  If  we  go 
to  church  to  hear  sermons,  then  the  sermons 
must  be  worth  hearing,  and  where  they  are  not 
we  are  absolved.  If  we  go  to  be  touched  by 
the  externalities  of  worship,  the  true  spiritual 
stimulus  must  at  last  fail  us.  We  must  go 
because  there  is  a  special  manifestation  of  God 
in  the  personality  of  Jesus  Christ  vouchsafed  in 
the  Church,  because  there  we  are  united  with  one 
another  and  with  the  Lord.  Our  fellow  disciples 
have  received  from  Christ  the  glory  which  the 
Father  gave  the  Son,  and  we  must  enter  into 
fellowship  with  Christian  rnen  if  we  are  to  enter 
deeply  into  fellowship  with  God.  Every  wor- 
shipper must  think  of  his  fellow-worshippers, 
must  merge  his  own  life  in  the  life  of  the  Church, 
and  thus  realise  the  idea  of  the  communion  of 
saints.  To  do  this  it  is  necessary  to  attend  faith- 
fully the  services  as  far  as  possible,  whether  or 
not  the  preaching  is  eloquent  and  interesting.  It 
should  be  the  continual  prayer  of  the  intercessors 
for  the  Church  that  the  Church  may  be  a  household 
of  faith  in  which  no  heart  can  sorrow  or  rejoice 


124  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

alone.  The  New  Testament  justifies  far  more 
emphatic  teaching  on  the  necessity  of  the  Church 
and  its  institutions  than  one  often  listens  to.  It 
may  be  doubted  whether  prayer  or  communion 
with  Christ  or  joy  in  God  or  any  other  great 
experience  of  the  Christian  life  can  be  realised  in 
any  full  sense  by  isolated  believers.  The  inter- 
cessors of  the  Church,  knowing  the  Church  and 
its  needs,  will  pray  that  the  life  of  the  Church 
may  be  more  and  more  a  common  life,  that  the 
fellowship  between  the  members  and  Christ  may 
be  continually  deepened  and  intensified,  and  if 
that  prayer  is  fulfilled  there  will  be  no  need  to 
ask  for  more. 

Once  again.  The  intercessors  must  pray  for 
the  individuals  they  know.  We  cannot  love  all 
men  in  the  strict  and  true  sense.  As  Newman 
said  we  may  feel  well  disposed  to  all  men.  We 
may  act  toward  all  men  in  a  spirit  of  love.  We 
may  view  them  as  those  for  whom  Christ  died. 
But  the  real  love  of  man  depends  on  practice, 
and  we  must  begin  by  loving  those  near  to  us, 
labouring  for  them,  praying  for  them,  bearing 
with  them,  suffering  for  them.  It  is  in  this  way 
that  there  grows  in  the  heart  that  root  of  charity 
which  if  small  at  first  may,  like  the  mustard  seed, 


•'IF  TWO  OF  YOU  SHALL  AGREE"  125 

at  last  overshadow  the  whole  earth,  Wc  love 
God  whom  we  have  not  seen  by  loving  our 
brethren  whom  we  sec.  Week  by  week  we 
should  recall  their  case.  There  is  one  who  after  a 
consistent  life  of  many  years  has  fallen  into  a 
deep  abyss  of  shame.  He  has  dragged  with  him 
others  who  are  innocent,  and  he  is  at  the  point  of 
despair.  There  is  one  who  is  reeling  under  the 
shock  of  sudden  and  terrible  bereavement.  There 
is  one  who  has  undergone  a  business  disaster 
which  will  alter  for  him  the  whole  aspects  of 
living.  And  there  are  those  on  whom  the  great 
blessedness  of  life  has  dawned,  or  is  beginning  to 
dawn.  There  are  those  who  have  ranged  them- 
selves on  the  side  of  Christ,  and  there  are  those 
whose  hearts  are  growing  cold.  Who  can  tell 
what  forces  and  succours  may  go  forth  to  all 
these  as  the  result  of  intercession  ? 

The  Christian  Church  ought  to  have  in  its 
possession  far  fuller  records  of  the  answer  to 
prayer.  But  we  are  not  left  without  witness. 
In  the  records  of  Mrs.  Bcecher  Stowe's  life  we 
are  told  that  in  her  later  years  her  consecration 
took  high  forms  and  she  especially  devoted  her- 
self to  intercession.  There  came  a  time  in  her 
history    when   one  who    was    very  dear   to   her 


126  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

seemed  about  to  sink  away  from  the  faith  in 
which  she  trusted,  and  she  set  herself  resolutely 
to  avert  this  calamity.  She  put  the  full  force  of 
her  intellect  to  work  upon  this  conflict.  Letter 
after  letter  found  its  way  from  her  pen  to  the 
foreign  town  in  which  scepticism  was  doing  its 
worst  for  the  soul  she  loved.  She  wrote,  she 
reasoned,  she  argued,  she  pleaded,  in  vain.  Then 
she  turned  to  her  great  faith.  She  secluded  her- 
self from  all  but  God,  and  set  her  whole  faith  to 
labour  for  her  soul's  desire.  A  few  weeks  after 
a  letter  reached  her,  saying,  "At  Christmas-time 
light  came  to  me.  I  see  things  differently  now." 
In  the  life  of  Dr.  Emmons  we  read  that  under  a 
great  bereavement  which  had  been  seen  to  im- 
pend for  some  time  he  was  wonderfully  calm  and 
peaceful.  The  secret  of  his  composure  was  dis- 
covered in  the  fact  that  some  Christians  had 
made  a  league  of  intercession  and  had  prayed 
that  his  faith  might  not  fail. 

There  must  be  many  readers  of  these  lines 
who  watch  with  deep  solicitude  the  little  churches 
with  which  they  are  connected.  They  see  that 
spiritual  life  in  them  is  languid  and  low.  Perhaps 
they  are  undergoing  sharp  trials  and  impoverish- 
ment.    It  almost  seems  as  if  the  strain  was  too 


"IF  TWO  OF  YOU  SHALL  AGREE"  127 

great  to  be  borne  any  longer.  Who  will  form  a 
league  of  intercession  ?  It  is  not  enough  to  pray 
in  secret.  Let  there  be  anolher  to  make  the  two 
— one  other  at  least — and  let  these  two  make 
importunate  request  to  the  Father  and  see  whether 
the  tide  will  not  turn  and  a  glorious  blessing  be 
granted.  It  will  not,  it  cannot  be  without  cost  to 
the  intercessors,  but  in  the  spiritual  order  accord- 
ing to  our  sorrow  so  will  be  our  joy,  and  so  we 
may  understand  Our  Lord's  deep  word,  "Hitherto 
ye  have  asked  nothing  in  my  name.  Ask  and  ye 
shall  receive,  that  your  joy  may  be  full."  In 
proportion  as  the  sorrow  has  been  deep,  even  as 
it  has  been  the  sorrow  of  the  Cross,  where  the 
heart  of  God  is  written  out  in  blood,  so  will  be 
the  grace  and  the  depth  of  the  joy.  Intercession 
can  never  lie  lightly  upon  the  soul  of  prayer. 

"Two  strangers  happened  to  be  passing 
through  a  town  where  a  great  fire  was  raging. 

"  One  of  them  sat  down  at  the  inn,  saying, 
'  It  is  not  my  business,'  but  the  other  ran  into 
the  flames  and  saved  much  goods  and  some 
people. 

"  When  he  came  back  his  companion  asked 
him,  '  Who  bade  thee  risk  thy  life  in  this  busi- 
ness ?  ' 


128  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

"  He  said,  '  The  brave  man  who  bade  me  bury 
seed  that  it  may  one  day  bring  forth  increase.' 

"  '  But  if  thou  thyself  hadst  been  buried  in  the 
ruins  ?  ' 

"  'Then  should  I  myself  have  been  the  seed.'" 


THE  CASTING  AWAY  OF  THEOLOGY* 


M 


ISS  PHELPS — we  call  her  by  her  maiden 
name — is  a  writer  whose  work  has  often 
the  fascination  of  genius.  The  peculiar  character- 
istics of  New  England  are  strong  within  her. 
Those  who  have  read  the  lives  of  her  father  and 
mother  will  understand  how  highly  strung  her 
temperament  is,  with  what  a  proud,  lonely,  wistful, 
refusing  aspect  she  has  looked  upon  life.  In  this 
new  book  she  has  told  more  of  her  inner  feelings 
than  in  any  other,  for  it  would  be  idle  to  ignore 
that  she  has  described  her  father  and  the  scenes 
of  her  childhood  and  youth.  Professor  Austin 
Phelps  was  a  religious  writer  of  considerable 
mark,  of  great  sensitiveness,  and  of  a  painful 
conscientiousness.  His  life  was  both  marred 
and  purified  by  continual  suffering,  and  though 

*  "  A    Sin£(iilar    Life."      By    Elizabeth    Stuart    Phelps. 
(London  :  James  Clarke  &  Co.) 

I 


I30  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

his  ears  were  open  to  many  of  the  highest  voices 
of  the  world,  he  held  tenaciously  by  the  old 
theology,  and  was  exercised  to  the  depth  of  his 
nature  when  his  college  at  Andover  moved  in 
new  directions.  His  daughter,  while  cherishing 
an  affectionate  veneration  for  her  father's  character, 
partly  disagreed  with  his  theology,  and  partly 
viewed  the  problems  that  vexed  him  as  unimpor- 
tant. Since  his  death,  she  and  her  husband 
have  busied  themselves  in  various  literary  ex- 
periments, none  of  them  quite  successful.  Nor 
is  "  A  Singular  Life  "  to  be  described  as  in  any 
way  a  great  book,  although  it  has  considerable 
power.  Its  fault  is  its  extreme  conventionality. 
The  characters  are  fixed  types,  described  without 
the  least  subtlety  or  discrimination,  and  the 
action  all  proceeds  as  it  might  in  the  world  of  the 
imagination.  Neither  are  there  touches  of  power 
such  as  we  occasionally  meet  with  in  "A  Struggle 
for  Immortality,"  and  in  some  of  Miss  Phelps's 
poems.  Nevertheless,  the  book  is  good,  pure, 
wholesome,  and  spirit-stirring,  although  we  should 
not  have  given  it  prominent  notice  had  it  not 
been  for  its  moral.  That  moral  falls  in  with  the 
tendency  of  much  current  thinking,  and  it  is  quite 
worth  while  to  examine  it.     The  book  may  be 


THE  CASTING  AWAY  OF  THEOLOGY  131 

described  briefly  as  a  plea  for  the  retention  of 
Christianity  and  the  casting  away  of  theology. 

Professor  Carruth,  of  Cesarea  College,  is  de- 
scribed as  a  man  of  archangelic  nature,  full  of 
theology,  rigidly  orthodox,  but  so  profoundly 
Christian  that  sometimes  he  could  not  quite  act 
up  to  his  barbarous  creed.  His  wife  was  a  com- 
monplace, motherly  old  lady ;  his  daughter, 
Helen  Carruth,  was  a  young  lady  of  twenty-five, 
a  bright,  deep  orange  blonde,  whatever  that  may 
mean,  very  beautiful,  dressed  in  silk  and  purple 
and  white  lace,  fond  of  her  father  and  mother, 
but  leading  her  life  ver}'  much  apart  from  them. 
In  particular  she  was  utterly  sick  of  what  she 
considered  the  whole  miserable  business  of 
theology.  Up  to  the  somewhat  mature  age  men- 
tioned she  had  taken  no  interest  in  the  college 
and  none  in  the  students,  and  she  regarded  with 
mingled  impatience  and  contempt  controversies 
about  inspiration,  the  punishment  of  the  lost,  and 
the  like.  A  remarkable  student  at  this  period 
leaves  the  college  and  enters  Helen  Carruth 's 
life.  His  appropriate  name  is  Bayard.  He  is 
marvellously  beautiful,  chivalrously  brave,  theo- 
logically unsound,  and  a  man  of  perfect  spiritual 
honour.     It  is  easy  to  see  that  Miss  Phelps  has 


132  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

modelled  him  on  her  idea  of  Robertson  of 
Brighton.  This  Mr.  Bayard,  after  beginning  a 
friendship  with  Miss  Carruth,  has  a  call  to  a 
small  seaport  town,  but  when  examined  by  the 
council  it  turns  out  that  he  is  not  sufficiently 
sound.  He  thereupon  starts  a  church  for  him- 
self, which  is  called  the  Church  of  the  Love  of 
Christ.  He  does  his  duty  in  various  respects, 
displays  much  prowess  as  a  pugilist,  rescues  a 
man  from  drowning,  lives  in  shabby  lodgings, 
with,  of  course,  some  very  fine  engravings  on 
the  walls,  is  indifferent  about  food,  devotes  his 
energies  to  work  among  the  lost,  and  preaches 
marvellous  sermons.  He  has  great  troubles  and 
a  miserable  salary,  but  his  courage  does  not  fail. 
In  due  time  Helen  Carruth  appears  on  the  scene. 
She  and  her  father  and  mother  spend  their 
summer  holiday  in  Mr.  Bayard's  town.  The 
professor  is  working  at  an  article  on  the  state  of 
the  unforgiven  after  death  —  a  subject  which 
appears  to  Mr,  Bayard  and  Miss  Carruth 
infinitely  trivial.  Miss  Carruth  says  :  "  If  my 
father  weren't  such  an  angel  in  private  life 
it  wouldn't  be  so  funny.  I  cannot  see  what 
he  wants  the  unconverted  to  be  burnt  up  for." 
Mr.  Bayard  quite  agrees,  and  thinks  that  he  has 


THE  CASTING  AWAY  OF  THEOLOGY  133 

enough  to  do  with  the  state  of  the  unforgivcii 
before  death.  We  may  mildly  venture  to  suggest 
that  the  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  whom  Bayard  is 
supposed  specially  to  honour,  and  His  Apostle 
St.  Paul,  and  many  others  whose  lives  were  a 
straight  and  thoughtful  journey  in  their  track, 
were  very  deeply  exercised  about  the  state  of  the 
unforgiven  after  death.  But  this  may  pass.  In 
due  time  Miss  Carruth  becomes  a  worker  in  Mr. 
Bayard's  church,  while  he  throws  himself  into  a 
fierce  battle  against  the  liquor  trade,  which  was 
cursing  the  town.  He  confesses  his  love  for  her, 
but  does  not  propose  to  marry,  as  his  salary  is 
so  small.  She  goes  with  her  father  and  mother 
to  Berlin.  That  amiable  lunatic  of  a  professor 
is  actually  engaged  in  studying  the  question  of 
the  authenticity  of  the  fourth  Gospel  and  the 
eflect  of  German  rationalism  on  the  evangelical 
faith.  These  trivialities  give  him  peaceful  and 
plentiful  occupation,  and  when  after  a  stormy 
passage  the  family  returns,  Bayard  is  able  to 
propose  marriage,  his  uncle  having  left  him  a 
house  in  Boston.  They  are  married  accordingly, 
and  very  shortly  after  Bayard  is  killed  by  a  stone 
which  an  angry  publican  flung  at  him.  The 
moral  of  the  book  is  that  colleges  should  give  up 


134  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

teaching  theology,  that  ministers  should  give  up 
studying  and  preaching  it,  that  the  simple  Gospel 
of  the  love  of  Christ  ought  to  be  declared  in  a 
free  and  unencumbered  manner,  and  that  ministers 
should  be  prepared  for  their  work  by  the  study 
of  Socialism  and  the  condition  of  the  poor.  Let 
us  look  at  these  contentions. 

Bayard  called  his  church  the  Church  of  the 
Love  of  Christ.  He  stood  up  in  his  pulpit  week 
after  week  and  declared  that  God  was  love,  that 
Christ  loved  each  soul  in  his  congregation,  and 
would  fain  strain  it  to  His  bosom.  What  does 
this  involve  ?  In  the  first  place  who  is  Christ  ? 
He  is  unseen — that  we  know.  He  has  been  dead 
nearly  two  thousand  years — that  we  know.  He 
is  no  more  among  us  in  the  flesh  as  He  was  in 
Palestine.  Then  who  is  He  whose  love  has 
power  to  pass  through  the  veil  and  the  gate  and 
the  silence  of  death,  and  touch  and  warm  us 
now  ?  Who  would  preach  the  Gospel  of  the 
love  of  Abraham  or  of  Moses  or  of  Paul  ?  What 
is  there  about  Christ  that  puts  Him  in  an 
altogether  different  category  from  theirs,  and 
gives  Him  power  to  help  us  to-day  ?  The 
answer  is,  we  suppose,  that  Christ  is  God.  Is 
not  this  theology  ?     What  happened  after  Christ's 


THE  CASTING  A  IV  AY  OF  THEOLOGY  135 

death  that  gave  Him  power  to  reach  us  with  Mis 
love  as  the  others  who  have  died  cannot  ?  He 
rose  again.  Is  not  this  also  theology  ?  We 
seem  ali'eady  to  be  dealing  with  two  articles  of 
the  Christian  creed,  the  Incarnation  and  the 
Resurrection,  for  without  these  the  proclamation 
that  Christ  loves  the  human  souls  that  live  is 
a  mockery.  And  how  do  we  know  that  Christ 
loves  us?  The  answer,  we  suppose,  is  that  His 
heart  was  revealed  in  the  Cross,  and  does  not 
that  give  us  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  ?  In 
other  words,  the  inscription,  the  Church  of  the 
Love  of  Christ,  is  a  ghastly  deception  unless  it 
rests  upon  the  fundamental  articles  of  the  Christian 
creed — unless,  in  other  words,  it  has  a  theology 
behind  it.  Nor  is  that  the  whole.  It  may  be 
answered,  We  know  that  Christ  loved  us  by  the 
gracious  words  that  proceeded  out  of  His  mouth  ; 
was  it  not  He  who  said,  "Let  not  your  heart  be 
troubled,  neither  let  it  be  afraid  "  ?  But  then  did 
He  say  these  words,  or  were  they  the  invention 
of  some  other  ?  Is  not  this  that  very  question  of 
the  authenticity  of  the  fourth  Gospel  of  which 
Miss  Phelps  speaks  with  such  magnificent  scorn  ? 
More  than  this.  We  need  to  go  far  into 
theology  before  we  can  make  the  belief  of  the 


136  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

love  of  God  vivid  or  tenable  to  mankind.  Some, 
perhaps  many,  have  no  difficulty  in  believing  it. 
To  them  existence  is  a  sweet,  prolonged  summer. 
But  the  more  the  facts  of  life  are  dragged  into 
the  daylight  and  studied,  the  deeper  is  the  con- 
viction in  thoughtful  minds  that  from  these,  taken 
as  they  stand,  the  love  of  God  and  the  righteous- 
ness of  God  cannot  be  surely  discovered.  When 
we  come  to  know  God  in  Christ,  we  look  upon 
all  things  in  the  light  of  reconciling  love,  and  we 
apprehend  in  ''  the  joined  and  four-squared 
truth  "  the  wonderful  and  majestic  laws  of  storm 
which  work  surely  to  a  just  and  clear  issue, 
though  they  work  so  slowly.  We  are  able  to 
interpret  what  we  do  not  know  by  that  which  we 
are  sure  of,  and  wc  find  ourselves  re-echoing  the 
mild  wisdom  of  Dorothy  Winthorp  in  "  Silas 
Marner." 

"  But  what  come  to  me  as  clear  as  the  day- 
light, it  was  when  I  was  troubling  over  poor 
Bessy  Fawkes,  and  it  allays  comes  into  my  head 
when  I'm  sorry  for  folks,  and  feel  as  I  can't  do  a 
power  to  help  'em,  not  if  I  was  to  get  up  i'  the 
middle  o'  the  night — it  comes  into  my  head  as 
Them  above  has  got  a  deal  tenderer  heart  nor 
what  I've  got — for  I  can't  be  anyways  better  nor 


THE  CASTING  AWAY  OF  THEOLOGY  137 

Them  as  made  mc  ;  and  if  anything  looks  hard  to 
me,  it's  because  there's  things  1  don't  know  on  ; 
and  for  the  matter  o'  that,  there  may  be  plenty  o' 
things  I  don't  know  on,  for  it's  Httle  as  1  know — 
that  it  is.  And  so,  while  I  was  thinking  o'  that, 
you  come  into  my  mind.  Master  Marner,  and  it 
all  come  pouring  in —  If  /  felt  i'  my  inside 
what  was  the  right  and  just  thing  by  you,  and 
them  as  prayed  and  drawcd  the  lots,  all  but  that 
wicked  'un,  if  //icyd  ha'  done  the  right  thing  by 
you  if  they  could,  isn't  there  Them  as  was  at  the 
making  on  us,  and  knows  better  and  has  a  better 
will  ?  And  that's  all  as  ever  I  can  be  suic  on, 
and  everything  else  is  a  big  puzzle  to  mc  when  I 
think  on  it.  For  there  was  the  fever  come  and 
took  off  them  as  were  fuU-growed,  and  left  the 
helpless  children ;  and  there's  the  breakii}g  o' 
limbs  ;  and  them  as  'ud  do  right  and  be  sober 
have  to  suffer  by  them  as  are  contrairy — eh, 
there's  trouble  i'  this  world,  and  there's  things  as 
we  can  niver  make  out  the  rights  on.  And  all  as 
we've  got  to  do  is  to  trusten,  Master  Marner — to 
do  the  right  thing  as  fur  as  we  know,  and  to 
trusten.  For  if  us  as  knows  so  little  can  see  a  bit 
o'  good  and  rights,  we  may  be  sure  as  there's  a 
good  and  a  rights  bigger  nor  what  we  can  know 


138  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

— I  feel  it  i'  my  own  inside  as  it  must  be  so. 
And  if  you  could  but  ha'  gone  on  trustening, 
Master  Marner,  you  wouldn't  ha'  run  away  from 
your  fellow-creatures  and  been  so  lone." 

But  Silas  Marner  could  not  take  home  the 
reasoning  until  there  was  given  to  him  the  love 
of  a  little  child.  How  many  there  are  who  have 
no  solace  save  the  thought  that  there  must  come 
an  end  at  last  of  their  numbered  miles  of  pain  ! 
For  them  the  winter  will  never  be  past,  the  rain 
will  never  be  over  and  gone,  the  time  of  the 
singing  of  birds  will  never  come.  Never  beneath 
those  skies.  And  even  to  the  most  faithful  in 
sight  of  the  terrific  tragedies  of  life,  does  it  not 
often  seem  as  if  the  will  of  the  devil  were  being 
done  on  earth  even  as  it  is  in  hell,  as  if  the 
kingdom  of  God  could  never  come  ?  Yes,  the 
Christian  preacher  must  be  very  sure  of  his 
ground  when  he  stands  up  before  a  company  of 
men  and  women  weighted  with  sorrow,  crushed 
with  care,  tortured  by  remorse,  and  tells  them 
that  each  individual  has  a  place  in  the  sacred 
heart  of  Christ. 

In  fact  there  is  one  firm  foundation,  and  only 
one.  God  commendeth  His  love  toward  us  in 
that  while  we  were  yet  sinners  Christ  died  for 


THE  CASTING  AWAY  OF  THEOLOGY  139 

US.  That  is  the  Gospel  of  the  Cross  with  which 
St.  Paul  confronted  Jew  and  Greek,  and  it  will  be 
found  in  time  either  that  the  preacher  must  meet 
his  hearers  with  that  message,  or  cease  to  speak. 
It  is  idle,  very  idle,  to  discuss  whether  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  the  Apostles  could  be  as  per- 
fect organs  of  revelation  as  Our  Lord  Himself. 
The  question  is  not  whether  St.  Paul  occasion- 
ally rabbinises,  not  whether  certain  among  his 
lines  of  reasoning  are  untenable.  The  question 
is  whether  the  doctrines  with  which  the  Epistles 
are  threaded  through  and  through  as  a  leaf  is 
threaded  by  its  fibres  are  true  or  false.  If  they 
are  true,  then  there  is  yet  a  heart  to  the  world. 
The  Church  of  God  is  ransomed  and  the  Church 
of  God  is  safe.  If  they  are  not  true,  then  the 
Apostles  corrupted  Christianity  and  all  but  de- 
stroyed it,  and  we  must  tear  out  their  writings 
from  the  New  Testament  before  we  can  hope  to 
get  a  glimmer  of  the  Christianity  of  Christ  again. 
But  are  they  false  ?  Let  us  consider  what  is  put 
in  their  stead.  If  God  gave  Christ  and  Christ 
gave  Himself  as  the  propitiation  for  our  sins, 
then  we  are  on  adamant  which  cannot  be  shaken. 
But  if  not,  if  Christ  died  as  a  martyr,  then  the 
proclamation  of  His  love  has  no  meaning;  then 


I40  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

Calvary,  instead  of  lifting  the  gloom  from  the 
world,  deepens  it  into  despair.  If  Christ  died 
willingly  to  atone  for  our  sins,  all  martyrdoms 
are  explained  and  glorified.  If  sin  overwhelmed 
Him,  then  God  has  been  defeated  by  evil,  and 
His  Cross  is  the  tragedy  of  the  world.  The 
Cross,  we  know,  was  victory.  He  overcame  the 
world  in  His  dying,  and  no  matter  what  appear- 
ances may  be,  the  final  triumph  of  the  love  of 
God  is  there  to  eyes  that  have  seen  the  Lord  and 
His  Sabaoth. 

"German  rationalism."  We  grant  that  the 
phrase  has  often  been  used  very  idly  and  very 
foolishly.  We  can  understand  Miss  Phelps's 
impatience  with  it.  But  we  assure  her  that  there 
is  a  rationalism  which  is  altogether  fatal  to  faith, 
and  that  she  is  drifting  in  its  direction.  She  has 
a  noble  and  believing  nature.  Of  her  it  is 
eminently  true  that  she  has  recognised  "  the  dark 
power  of  the  gods  of  sorrow,  and  the  sacredness 
of  unbending  death."  She  has  done  more  than 
this ;  she  has  acknowledged  the  power  of  the 
name  of  Jesus,  and  she  has  crowned  Him  Lord 
of  all.  It  is  grievous  that  such  a  woman  should 
join  in  ignorant  and  foolish  gibes  at  scholars  and 
their  studies,  when   a  very  little  thinking  would 


THE  CASTING  AWAY  OF  THEOLOGY  141 

enable  her  to  see  that,  unless  our  faith  rests  on 
certain  great  facts,  Christianity  is  a  ruin  and  a 
dream  ;  and  that  if  these  facts  are  true,  they 
necessarily  take  the  form  of  a  theology.  As  for 
those  whose  Gospel  is  that  Christ  lived  once  in 
Palestine,  and  that  there  are  valuable  sentences 
to  be  traced  to  Him,  and  that  with  a  little  care 
almost  all  the  familiar  verses  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment can  be  used  with  the  original  meaning  taken 
out  of  them,  it  needs  no  prophet  to  foretell  the 
fate  of  a  church  controlled  by  such.  It  will  live 
just  as  long  as  it  is  not  found  out.  When  it  is 
found  out,  it  will  be  swept  from  the  earth  as  an 
organised  hypocrisy. 


IS  THE   GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST 
FORGOTTEN  ? 

BEHIND  the  fact,  that  in  many  parts  of 
England  the  masses  are  ahenated  from  all 
Churches,  there  may  be  another  and  even  a 
graver  truth.  Let  us  ask,  without  attempting 
to  answer  the  question.  Is  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
preached  generally  in  our  sanctuaries  ?  Or  has 
it  been  for  the  time  lost  and  forgotten  ? 

The  question  may  be  put  in  another  form.  If 
a  preacher  discourses  in  the  following  fashion,  is 
he  declaring  the  Christian  Gospel?  "Christ  has 
come  to  reveal  the  glory  of  the  higher  personal 
life.  Our  ideals  have  been  too  poor,  too  near,  and 
too  partial.  Let  us  take  Christ  as  the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  perfect  man.  Let  us  seek  to 
drink  in  constantly  the  spirit  of  His  life.  Let  our 
life  be  an  everlasting  ascent,  through  all  failure 
and  defeat,  to  the  height  on  which  He  stands.    Let 


144  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

US  be  impatient  of  everything  that  comes  short  of 
the  highest,  and  let  us  spare  no  effort  to  attain  it, 
though  it  be  with  wearied  feet  and  bleeding  brow 
and  heart  loaded  with  sorrow.  Let  us  wait  for 
the  gales  of  the  Spirit,  and  let  us  seek  to  be 
driven  before  them.  If  there  is  a  virtue  we 
would  emulate  or  a  fault  we  would  discard,  let  us 
gaze  on  the  one  till  our  souls  have  risen  under  it 
as  the  tide  under  the  moon,  or  scourge  the  other 
in  sight  of  all  our  faculties  till  every  natural 
sense  recoils  from  its  company.  Let  us  never  be 
stopped  by  falls.  Let  us  arise  from  all  these,  and 
repent  and  address  ourselves  anew  to  the  great 
task,  until  the  yawning  gulf  between  the  actual 
and  the  ideal  is  bridged  at  last.  So  yearning,  so 
striving,  we  are  climbing  the  hill  of  God,  and  we 
are  in  the  way  of  salvation." 

Supposing  this  were  preached  to  a  Christian 
congregation,  would  there  be  any  repudiation, 
any  revolt,  any  clear  feeling  that  the  Christian 
Gospel  had  been  denied  ?  Is  it  too  much  to  say, 
even  when  we  are  fully  willing  to  distinguish 
between  the  constant  which  we  ought  to  keep 
and  the  transient  which  we  ought  to  let  slip,  that 
this,  if  the  New  Testament  is  true,  is  the  nega- 
tion of  Christianity  ?     For  what  is  this  but  the 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST  FORGOTTEN  ?     145 

righteousness  of  the  law,  by  which  no  flesh  can 
be  saved  ?  It  is  indeed  presented  in  a  lofty 
fashion.  The  moral  consciousness  has  been 
strengthened  and  purified  by  the  long  centuries 
of  Christian  history.  The  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion by  works  cannot  any  longer  be  proclaimed 
in  its  lower  form,  for  the  spiritual  sense  and 
craving  of  mankind  have  been  sharpened,  and 
would  not  accept  it.  Nevertheless,  in  the  end  of 
the  day,  it  is  the  old  falsehood  which  the  whole 
strength  of  the  Apostles  was  spent  in  refuting. 
Virtue  under  this  creed  is  not  created  from  the 
order  of  an  inner  faith  and  love ;  it  is  ultimately 
obedience  to  a  formula,  and  not  the  natural 
action  of  a  reconstructed  soul.  Righteousness  is 
obtained  by  the  effort  and  struggle  of  the  spirit, 
and  not  by  the  atonement  of  the  Lamb  of  God. 
If  this  is  generally  preached,  then  the  battle  of 
the  Reformation  has  to  be  fought  over  again. 

We  are  very  far  indeed  from  saying  that  those 
who  preach  in  this  fashion  reject  the  true  faith. 
Rather  we  believe  it  will  come  with  a  shock  of 
surprise  to  many  of  them  that  their  teaching  has 
run  in  this  mould.  Spiritual  faith  may  and  does 
remain  under  expressions  that  fit  it  very  ill,  for 
certainly  the   Church,    now  and   in  all   ages,   is 

K 


146  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

justified  by  faith.  Nor  would  we  deny — nay,  we 
are  eager  to  admit — that  the  new  legalism  is  in 
many  instances  the  fruit  of  an  intelligible  reaction 
against  the  heresy  of  heresies,  antinomianism,  or 
has  taken  rise  in  a  righteous  impatience  of  low 
ideals  of  the  spiritual  life.  To  what  extent  this 
reaction  has  gone  we  have  no  means  of  saying. 
There  are,  however,  a  few  tests  that  may  be 
applied.  Wherever  the  higher  legalism  is  at 
work,  it  will  be  noticed  that  the  doctrine  of  the 
Apostles  sinks  into  the  background.  The  thought 
of  righteousness  by  faith  loomed  so  large  in  the 
mind  of  St.  Paul  as  nearly  to  cover  the  whole  hori- 
zon, and  it  is  natural  that  he  should  be  patronised 
or  let  alone  or  contradicted  by  those  to  whom 
that  doctrine  is  meaningless.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  they  cr}^,  "  Back  to  Christ,"  and  take  refuge 
in  certain  words  of  Our  Lord  which  a  criticism 
largely  subjective  is  allowed  to  choose.  For  the 
preaching  of  the  righteousness  of  the  law,  in 
however  lofty  or  exalted  a  manner,  makes  the 
greater  part  of  the  New  Testament,  not  only 
meaningless,  but  glaringly  and  mischievously 
untrue.  Further,  where  such  views  have  sway  the 
expiatory  death  of  Christ  sinks  into  the  back- 
ground, and    practically  ceases   to  be  preached, 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST  FORGOTTEN  ?      147 

Where  His  dying  is  referred  to,  it  is  expounded 
in  its  magnificence  as  a  revelation  of  sorrow  and 
self-sacrifice.  And  that  is  all  there  is  to  say. 
A  third  test,  applicable  in  cases  where  the  mis- 
chief has  not  gone  so  far,  is  that  all  the  attendants 
on  Christian  worship  are  treated  as  if  they  were 
in  the  fold  of  Christ.  Appeals  to  the  unconverted, 
prayers  for  the  unconverted,  practically  disappear 
from  the  service.  The  old  rousing  words,  "  Re- 
pent," "Believe,"  never  ring  from  the  pulpit. 
And  this  is  perfectly  natural  and  logical.  For 
if  righteousness  come  by  the  law,  the  mere 
attendance  in  a  Christian  sanctuary  is  proof  that 
the  divine  life  has  begun.  The  feet  have  been 
set  at  the  bottom  of  the  ascent,  and  the  preacher 
sees  before  him  men  and  women  and  children 
who  are  in  different  stages  of  progress  and  need 
to  be  helped  in  their  advance.  But  to  the  Evan- 
gelical preacher  some  are  in  the  Way  and  others 
are  out  of  it.  Some  have  received  the  Truth  and 
others  are  betrayed  by  falsehood.  Some  are 
living  and  some  are  dead.  All  other  distinctions 
sink  into  insignificance  beside  this.  All  steps 
are  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  process  of 
convulsion  and  re-creation  by  which  those  who 
are  without  hope  and  without  God  in  the  world 


148  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

become  fellow  citizens  of  the  saints  and  heirs  of  the 
grace  of  life.  It  is  impossible  that  any  preacher, 
duly  burdened  with  a  sense  of  this  appalling 
contrast,  should  ever  long  forget  it  in  preaching 
or  in  praying.  Yet  it  would  seem  from  the 
practice  of  many  Christian  ministers  that  in  their 
view  the  lost  are  never  to  be  found  within  the 
House  of  God. 

That  this  teaching  can  never  permanently  hold 
the  Church  of  Christ,  and  can  never  in  any 
degree  hold  it  without  destroying  its  force,  may 
be  easily  proved.  There  is,  as  we  have  said, 
the  great  and  powerful  testimony  of  the  New 
Testament.  But  will  proof  texts  in  these  days 
subdue  the  minds  of  men  and  turn  the  course  of 
their  thought  ?  Will  they  not  say  that  if  the 
idea  has  not  survived,  and  survived  in  its  old 
regnant  place  in  the  Christian  Church,  it  is  vain 
to  revive  the  words  in  which  it  was  first  clothed  ? 
Is  not  the  relation  between  ideas  and  words  this, 
that  the  words  depart  and  the  ideas  remain  ?  Is  it 
not  so,  that  the  spiritual  structure  is  not  built  till  the 
scaffolding  has  been  taken  away  ?  Now,  we  say 
in  reply  that  though  this  may  be  and  is  generally 
true,  it  does  not  apply  to  the  words  of  the  New 
Testament.     They  are  spirit  and   they  are  life. 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST  FORGOTTEN  ?      MO 

Or  to  turn  to  modern  testimonies,  they  are,  in 
the  phrase  we  are  never  weary  of  quoting,  the 
last  words  that  can  be  said.  They  are  words 
which,  whenever  brought  in  and  allowed  time 
enough  to  act,  are  found  to  fill  the  house  with  a 
deathless  fragrance.  They  are  words,  to  change 
the  figure,  which  whenever  our  thoughts  touch, 
they  are  made  perfectly  whole.  There  is  a  vitality 
in  the  ver}'  words  of  Scripture  which  acts  for 
itself,  even  when  he  who  speaks  them  has  little 
or  nothing  to  bring  of  his  own.  When  the 
Gospel  has  died  out  amongst  the  rich  and 
powerful,  amongst  the  great  and  wise,  it  has 
been  found  again  and  again  that  the  humble 
Christian  evangelist  has  changed  the  face  of 
things  by  a  proclamation  of  the  old  message, 
of  the  message  received  into  his  heart. 

We  might  appeal  also  to  the  history  of  the 
Church.  The  whole  record  of  Christian  life  and 
death  has  been  moulded  by  the  great  truth  of 
ustification  by  faith.  What  Martin  Luther  calls 
the  true  and  holy  and  godly  desperation  of  Stau- 
pitius  has  been  to  countless  thousands  their 
crowning  experience.  "  I  have  vowed  above  a 
thousand  times  that  I  would  become  better,  but 
1    have    never    performed    that   which    1   vowed. 


150  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

Hereafter  I  will  make  no  such  vow,  for  1  have 
now  learned  from  experience  that  I  am  not  able 
to  perform  it.  Unless,  therefore,  God  be  favour- 
able and  merciful  unto  me  for  Christ's  sake,  and 
grant  unto  me  a  blessed  and  happy  hour,  when  I 
shall  depart  out  of  this  miserable  life,  I  shall  not 
be  able,  with  all  my  vows  and  all  my  good 
deeds,  to  stand  before  Him."  That  "  blessed 
and  happy  hour "  has  been  given  thousands 
and  thousands  of  times  in  the  death-beds  of 
believers,  as  in  his,  one  of  the  greatest  lights 
of  modern  culture,  who  said  that  over  the  river 
of  death  there  was  no  bridge  but  the  bridge  of  the 
Saviour, 

But  we  are  willing  to  admit  that  these  testi- 
monies are  not  sufficient  of  themselves.  If  it  can 
be  shown  that  these  truths  are  needed  no  longer, 
then  it  is  not  enough  to  say  that  they  have  been 
needed  hitherto.  It  may  be,  it  is  at  least  theo- 
retically conceivable,  that  W.  R.  Greg  is  correct 
when  he  says,  "  We  only  require  steadily  to  go 
right  at  once  and  henceforth  in  order  ere  long  to 
cancel  the  consequences  of  having  gone  wrong 
for  such  countless  generations."  If  it  can  be 
shown  that  there  is  no  weakness  and  no  yearning 
to  which  these  divine  revelations  now  come  with 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST  FORGOTTEN  ?     151 

any  satisfaction,  then  the  hour  has  arrived  when 
we  must  discard  the  Christian  Gospel,  and  in  the 
words  of  the  writer  from  whom  we  have  just 
quoted,  look  forward  no  longer  to  the  glorious 
appearing  of  Jesus,  but  to  "  the  advent  of  a  man 
filled  and  fired  with  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity, 
the  prophet  of  a  great  yet  realisable  ideal,"  But 
if  we  can  show  that  the  constant  needs  of 
man  place  us  in  relation  with  the  true,  divine 
things,  whether  we  will  or  no,  then  our  end 
has  been  accomplished.  Beliefs  cannot  die 
if  they  have  their  roots  in  the  nature  of  man. 
If  they  have  no  such  roots,  die  they  will  and 
must. 

Where  are  we  to  look  for  the  involuntary 
revelation  of  the  heart  ?  Where  are  we  to  look 
for  a  true  expression  of  the  permanent  interests 
of  humanity  ?  Sydney  Dobell,  in  his  eloquent 
essay  on  the  Brontes,  anticipated  that  in  the  sure 
and  silent  social  revolution  which  is  to  give  a 
new  and  perpetually  renewing  aristocracy,  and 
with  it  a  reorganisation  of  so  many  popular 
forms  of  thought,  there  will  be  needed  and  will 
arise  some  great  novelist  as  a  chief  apostle. 
Poets,  whenever  they  are  prophets,  can  only 
speak  to  the  highest.     In  doctrines  and  practices 


152  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

appealing  to  every  man,  wise  and  foolish,  rich 
and  poor,  old  and  young,  the  highest  genius  and 
the  lowest  drudge,  the  evangelist,  like  the  evangel, 
must  be  cosmopolitan.  More  than  forty  years 
have  passed  since  these  words  were  written,  and 
it  cannot  be  said  that  the  novelist,  who  is  also  a 
prophet,  has  yet  arisen.  But  more  and  more  in 
our  day  the  novelist  has  become  cosmopolitan. 
The  literature  of  fiction  is  the  daily  bread  of 
multitudes,  and  in  common  justice  it  must  be 
allowed  that  some  of  these  writers,  w'ho  are  most 
opposed  to  Christianity,  have  taken  their  work 
with  true  seriousness,  have  not  said  "  Peace, 
peace  "  when  there  was  no  peace,  have  recognised 
that  there  are  elements  in  our  society  of  infallible 
disruption  and  revolution.  They  may  not  speak 
to  us  from  a  height.  They  may  speak  rather,  in 
Dobell's  phrase,  in  thick  thoroughfares  of  our 
Lystras,  but  they  have  a  message,  and  a  message 
which  the  Christian  teacher  ought  to  know  and 
seriously  consider.  They  proclaim,  if  not  the 
remedy,  at  least  the  disease.  They  cry  out  for 
the  ills  that  still  afflict  us  in  the  midst  of  our 
boasted  progress.  They  testify  to  the  hunger  of 
the  heart  and  the  thirst  of  the   spirit   and  the 


IS  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST  FORGOTTEN  ?     153 

nakedness  of  the  whole  nature.  They  mourn 
because  the  whole  head  is  sick  and  the  whole 
heart  faint.  We  shall  try  to  find  the  meaning  of 
their  plaint,  and  to  see  whether  it  is  not  a  cry  for 
Christ  in  His  perfect  righteousness  and  His 
atoning  love. 


"CAST  YOUR  DEADLY  DOING  DOWN" 

\  A  7E  have  asked  whether  there  was  not  a 
^  ^  return  to  that  preaching  of  a  righteousness 
by  the  law  which  the  New  Testament  is  written 
to  condemn.  We  admitted  that  if  this  preaching 
reached  its  aim,  there  was  no  more  to  be  said. 
Testimony  and  experience  might  be  pleaded 
vainly  in  face  of  an  altered  human  nature.  But 
is  human  nature  altered  ?  Carlyle,  it  has  been 
said,  made  out  that  man's  nature  is  only  spiritual 
on  the  side  of  its  wants.  Well,  that  is  some- 
thing; nay,  it  is  very  much.  Do  the  old 
cravings  remain  and  assert  themselves,  the 
cravings  for  which  there  is  no  answer  save  in 
the  Holy  Gospel  ?  We  shall  take  our  reply 
from  those  who  are  outside  of  the  Church,  but 
who  strive  after  a  deep  and  serious  under- 
standing of  human  nature  and  human  life. 

It  may  conduce  to  clearness  if   we  give    the 
old   teaching  in   what    seems  to   many    its    most 


156  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

offensive  and  uncompromising  form.  Mr.  Froude 
in  one  of  his  essays  describes  a  revival  meeting 
at  which  he  heard  a  hymn  which  he  thinks  it 
worth  while  to  quote  as  a  sample  and  proof  of 
the  immorality  of  evangelicalism.  These  are 
the  words  : 

"  Nothing  either  great  or  small, 
Nothing,  sinner,  no  : 
Jesus  did  it,  did  it  all, 
Long,  long  ago. 

When  He  from  His  lofty  throne 

Stooped  to  do  and  die. 
Everything  was  fully  done — 

Hearken  to  the  cry 

'  It  is  finished  ! '     Yes,  indeed. 

Finished  every  jot. 
Sinner,  this  is  all  you  need, 

Tell  me,  is  it  not  ? 

Weary,  working,  toiling  ones. 

Wherefore  toil  ye  so  ? 
Cease  from  doing  ;  all  was  done 

Long,  long  ago. 

Till  to  Jesus  you  can  cling 

By  a  simple  faith, 
Doing  is  a  deadly  thing, 

Doing  ends  in  death. 

Cast  your  deadly  doing  down. 

Down  at  Jesus'  feet. 
Stand  in  Him,  in  Him  alone. 

Gloriously  complete." 


••CAST  YOUR  DEADLY  DOING  DOU'N"        157 

These  lines  may  be  thought  an  expression,  so 
sincere  and  poignant  as  almost  to  rise  into 
poetry,  of  the  fundamental  truth  of  the  Gospel. 
The  phrases  in  it  which  apparently  most  provoke 
anger  and  scorn  are  these :  "  Doing  ends  in 
death,"  and  "  Cast  your  deadly  doing  down. 
These  words  have  been  taken,  and  that  by 
accredited  ministers  of  Christ,  as  deliberate 
incentives  to  immorality. 

For  answer  we  shall  not  go  back  upon  the 
records  of  spiritual  experience.  We  shall  not 
quote  from  these  stories  of  vain  attempts  after 
the  righteousness  of  the  law  which  are  among 
the  most  burning  pages  in  all  literature,  so 
terrible  in  their  intensity  that  one  seems  rather 
to  hear  a  penitent  sobbing  out  a  confession  with 
white  lips  and  bursting  sighs  than  to  read  a  quiet 
page  at  a  quiet  table.  But  we  turn  to  ask  the 
prophets  of  our  time  what  their  experience  has 
been.  Let  us  begin  on  the  level  of  ordinary 
secular  experience.  A  man  desires  to  be  a  poet. 
He  studies  the  rules  of  grammar.  He  masters 
the  principles  of  melody.  He  acquires  a  rh3'ming 
dictionary  and  stocks  his  memory  with  jingles. 
He  even  acquires  familiarity  with  the  works  of 
the   masters.     All    that    labour   can  do  is  done. 


158  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

All  that  teaching  can  give  is  given.  Is  he  then 
a  poet  ?  Take  Ibsen's  answer  in  one  of  his 
early  works. 

"  K.  Sktile.  Tell  me,  Jatgier,  how  came  you  to 
be  a  bard  ?     Who  taught  you  the  art  ? 

^* Jatgier.  The  art  cannot  be  taught,  sire. 

^^ K.  Sktilc.  It  cannot  be  taught?  Then  how 
came  it  ? 

^^ Jatgier.  One  gave  me  the  gift  ,  .  ." 

Or  we  may  take  the  case  of  a  painter.  A 
man  desires  to  learn  the  mystery  of  art. 
Teachers  can  do  something  for  him,  and  they 
take  him  on  as  far  as  they  can  lead  him.  He 
masters  the  technique  so  far  as  his  capacity 
extends.  The  whole  mechanism  is  revealed  to 
him,  and,  so  far  as  rules  can  make  him,  he 
is  a  painter.  But  what  then  ?  Sir  Joshua  Rey- 
nolds once  examined  a  painting,  and  at  the  end 
of  his  scrutiny,  said  significantly,  "  It  wants — 
THAT."  "That"  meant  everything.  It  wanted 
life,  soul,  quality,  potency — all. 

It  would  be  both  useless  and  tedious  to  accu- 
mulate illustrations.  They  may  be  gathered 
from  every  sphere,  and  has  it  not  begun  to  dawn 
on  the  mind  of  the  reader  that  we  are  coming 
back  to  the   rude   phrases   of  the  hymn-writer? 


•'CAST  YOUR  DEADLY  DOING  DOWN"        159 

Is  it  not  SO  that  we  say  to  the  man  who  seeks  to 
be  poet  or  painter  by  rule,  "  Doing  is  a  deadly 
thing,"  "  Cast  your  deadly  doing  down  "  ?  This 
is  the  counsel  of  every  master  in  the  schools  of 
art.  And  are  we  not  coming  closer  still  to  the 
words  of  St.  Paul,  "  If  there  had  been  a  law 
given  which  could  make  life,  verily  righteous- 
ness would  have  been  of  the  law "  ?  But 
because  no  law  has  been  given  that  can  make 
life,  righteousness,  perfection,  achievement  have 
never  been  possible  by  obedience  to  rule,  and 
the  end  of  mere  obedience  to  rule  is  frustration 
and  defeat. 

Is  it  otherwise  in  the  sphere  of  morals  ?  We 
take  two  witnesses,  one  of  whom  at  least  will  not 
be  suspected  of  Christian  leanings.  Mr.  George 
Bernard  Shaw,  a  very  clever  and  unsparing- 
critic,  has  pointed  out  with  much  penetration 
that  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  pass  the  moral 
catechism,  Have  you  obeyed  the  command- 
ments ?  have  you  kept  the  law  ?  and  at  the  end 
to  live  a  worse  life  than  the  sinner  who  must 
answer  "nay"  through  all  the  questions.  But 
substitute  for  this  catechism  another  in  which 
the  one  point  to  be  settled  is  "guilty  or  not 
guilty,"  and  the  whole  world  is  condemned  before 


i6o  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

God.  Again,  the  ablest  expositor  of  Browning 
declares  that  the  poet  by  implication  rejects  the 
view  ordinarily  held  without  being  examined, 
that  the  moral  life  is  preliminar}^  to  the  joy 
and  rest  of  religion.  The  same  writer  says, 
echoing  his  master,  that  morality  is  the  sphere 
of  discrepancy,  and  the  moral  life  is  a  progressive 
realisation  of  a  good  that  can  never  be  complete. 
It  would  thus  seem  to  be  immeasurably  different 
from  religion,  which  must  in  some  way  or  other 
find  the  good  to  be  present,  actual,  absolute, 
without  shadow  of  change,  or  hint  of  limit  and 
imperfection.  It  will  serve  to  clearness  if  we 
analyse  the  answer  of  the  deeper  sceptical 
thought  of  our  time  to  the  pretence  that  right- 
eousness may  come  by  the  law. 

In  the  first  place,  the  greater  modern  sceptics 
have  joined  with  the  Christian  Church  in  con- 
fessing the  depravity  of  human  nature.  Browning 
is  not  to  be  quoted  in  this  connection,  though  he 
was  led  to  Christianity  because  it  "  taught  original 
sin,  the  corruption  of  man's  heart."  But  he 
viewed  human  nature  at  its  worst  in  the  spirit 
of  an  apostle.  We  turn  rather  to  the  one  writer 
of  great  imaginative  genius  left  to  us  (with  the 
possible    exception    of    Tolstoi) — we    mean    the 


•'CAST  YOUR  DEADLY  DOING  DOWN''        i6i 

Norwegian  dramatist,  Ibsen.  All  kinds  ot" 
morals  have  been  drawn  from  Ibsen's  plays, 
and  the  critics  will  long  be  free  to  pick  and 
choose.  But  the  truer  view  is  that  Ibsen  does 
not  mean  to  be  a  moralist,  but  only  to  describe. 
He  insists  that  his  readers  should  dare  to  face 
facts  and  recognise  reality.  The  business  of 
Ibsen  has  been  to  tear  off  the  last  mask  from  the 
unbearable  face  of  truth.  Because  he  has  done 
so,  his  writings  have  been  received  with  howls 
of  execration.  He  has  been  charged  with  only 
caring  to  see  what  is  foul,  mean,  and  repulsive. 
He  has  suffered  from  the  wrath  kindled  by  the 
presence  of  a  traitor  among  the  conspirators  of 
silence.  Second  thoughts  have  chastened  and 
sobered  his  severest  censors,  and  they  have  gone 
from  him  with  their  glib  optimism  rebuked.  Yes, 
it  is  true  ;  evil  has  penetrated  the  last  recesses 
of  man's  life.  "  Who  told  thee  that  thou  wast 
naked  ?  "  This  comes  from  eating  of  the  tree  of 
the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  Monstrous  as 
many  of  its  performances  have  been,  we  are 
inclined  to  think  that  the  realistic  school  in  the 
closing  years  of  this  century  has,  as  a  whole, 
made  for  righteousness  by  making  for  unwelcome 
truth.      It  has  been  possible  at  various  periods  to 

L 


i62  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

rover  up  the  whole  action  of  society  under  con- 
ventional disguises.  But,  as  Mark  Rutherford 
says,  behind  the  walls  there  were  secret  passages 
and  staircases  by  which  men  gained  access  to 
freedom.  We  repeat  that  the  scepticism  of 
serious  men  in  our  day  is  entirely  with  the 
Church  in  maintaining  that  evil  is  the  dominant 
power  in  human  life.  The  good  is  overmatched, 
and  therefore  at  the  start  the  effort  to  obtain 
righteousness  by  the  law  is  doomed  to  failure. 

But  scepticism  does  not  accept  the  fact  in 
the  spirit  of  Christianity.  Renouncing  the  over- 
coming hope  of  Christ,  it  has  to  find  such  anodynes 
and  palliatives  as  are  possible.  Perhaps  in  the 
best  minds  the  first  result  is  contentment  with 
low  ideals  of  goodness.  It  soon  grows  weary  of 
"  the  strain  that  bids  nor  sit  nor  stand,  but  go." 
No  one  has  ever  preached  more  earnestly  than 
W.  R.  Greg  against  the  base  confusion  between 
Paradise  and  the  pig-sty.  Few  modern  writers 
have  got  such  glimpses  of  a  possible  moral  glory, 
and  yet  this  really  spiritual  writer  comes  at  last 
to  hope  that  men  may  attain  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of — William  and  Robert  Chambers  !  This 
is  a  "  realisable  ideal."  The  people  may  become 
as  hardy,  enduring,  and   ambitious  as  the  better 


-CAST  YOUR  DEADLY  DOING  DOWN"        163 

specimens  of  the  Scotch  peasants,  and  they  may 
value  instruction  as  much.  That  is  the  end  of 
all  dreams !  To  be  successful  in  the  ordinary 
struggle  for  wealth  and  responsibility,  to  be 
content  with  an  existence  which  after  all  is 
essentially  money-making  and  mundane  !  Greg 
himself,  it  is  just  to  say,  fretted  restlessly  against 
such  a  climax  as  this.  But  his  reasonable  hopes 
carried  him  very  little  further.  We  are  very  far 
from  disparaging  the  virtues  of  the  eminent 
Edinburgh  publishers.  But  when  we  yield  to 
these  hopes,  which  ought  to  be  called  despairs, 
are  we  not  back  again  in  the  days  when  David 
Hume  led  the  world  out  of  the  shadow  of  eternity 
and  showed  that  it  was  only  an  object  of  the  five 
senses,  or  of  six,  if  we  add  hunger  ?  Are  we 
not  back  again  in  the  days  when,  as  a  writer  says, 
the  divine  element  was  explained  away  and  the 
proper  study  of  mankind  was  not  man,  as  that 
age  thought,  but  man  reduced  to  his  beggarly 
elements,  a  being  animated  by  the  sensuous 
springs  of  pleasure  and  pain,  who  should  properly, 
as  Carlyle  thought,  go  on  all  fours  ?  The  end 
is  that  political  economy  supplants  ethics,  religion 
gives  way  to  naturalism,  and  poetry  to  prose. 
Or,  as  the  hero  of  one  of  Ibsen's  plays  concludes  : 


1 64  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

"  The  requirements  of  this  life  are  hopelessly 
irreconcilable  with  high  faith  and  lofty  principle, 
and  man  must  choose  between  being  sordidly 
practical  and  nobly  fanatical." 

Again,  the  tendency  of  this  scepticism  is  to 
despair  of  moral  progress.  Those  who  are 
affected  by  it  never  believe  in  the  good  results 
of  missions.  They  scoff  at  the  thought  of  sudden 
moral  transformation.  They  have  no  expectation 
of  permanently  raising  the  fallen.  The  picture  of 
human  nature  given  by  St.  Paul  in  the  beginning 
of  Romans  is  instructively  confirmed  by  that  of 
Juvenal.  But,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  the 
contrast  of  their  inferences  is  even  more  remark- 
able. It  was  the  same  corruption  of  society  that 
wearied  out  the  Satirist  and  made  the  Apostle 
say,  "  I  must  see  Rome."  He  was  conscious 
evermore  of  possessing  the  spell  that  could 
subdue  its  worst  corruption. 

The  lowest  deep  is  the  palliation  and  ultimate 
denial  of  sin.  When  dreams  are  dust  and  hope 
is  dead,  it  seems  needless  to  correct  or  to  restrain 
animal  instincts.  The  sceptic  is  brought  at  last 
to  a  confession  of  ethical  agnosticism,  and  the 
only  sin  comes  to  be  the  sin  of  passing  a  moral 
judgment.     One  of  the  most  powerful  stories  of 


-CAST  YOUR  DEADLY  DOING  DOWN"        165 

our  time  is  entitled  "  Tess  of  the  D'Urbervilles,  a 
pure  woman  faithfully  presented."  The  writer 
has  followed  it  by  another  book,  in  which  he 
seems  to  echo  a  saying  in  Ibsen,  "  Follow  after 
God  or  deny  Him — either  way  thy  deeds  are 
doomed."  The  empire  of  the  spirit  thus  falls  a 
prey  to  the  empire  of  the  flesh.  A  daring  writer 
of  that  school  says  that  all  morality  is  relative. 
Whether  a  woman  is  to  be  chaste  or  not  depends 
as  much  upon  circumstances  as  whether  she  shall 
call  a  cab  or  walk.  He  goes  on  to  declare  that 
duty  is  the  primal  curse,  from  which  we  must 
redeem  ourselves  before  we  can  advance  another 
step  on  the  road,  God,  once  the  most  sacred  of 
our  conceptions,  has  been  denied ;  reason,  the 
infallible  Pope,  has  been  defied ;  and  duty, 
according  to  this  writer,  is  not  more  sacred  than 
God  or  reason.  He  is  right  when  he  further 
affirms  that  the  terms  of  realist  morality  have  not 
yet  appeared  in  our  living  language. 

Do  the  words  of  the  hymn  seem  quite  so 
strange?  Is  it  not  true  that  "doing  is  a  deadly 
thing,"  that  "  doing  ends  in  death,"  that  righteous- 
ness cannot  come  by  the  law  because  the  law 
cannot  give  life,  and  that  those  who  refuse  to 
seek  the  life  above  the  law  must  die  ?     The  true 


166  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

Standard  and  unquenchable  hope  of  goodness  is 
in  Christ,  who  died  and  rose  again,  and  sat 
down  incarnate  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 

We  have  given  one  side  of  the  argument 
against  the  possibihty  of  a  legal  righteousness. 
Another  remains  to  be  dealt  with. 


IS  CHRIST  DEAD  IN  VAIN  ? 

T  S  the  death  of  Christ  to  be  counted  for  as 
*  little  in  His  life  as  death  is  in  ours  ?  He 
might  have  died  in  peace  and  at  a  good  old  age  for 
all  that  many  modern  pulpits  say.  But  this  was 
not  the  fashion  of  His  dying.  It  was  early  and 
cruel  and  purposed.  We  have  seen  week  how  the 
New  Testament  argues  against  a  righteousness 
by  the  law  on  the  ground  that  the  law  cannot 
give  the  strength  which  is  necessary  for  obe- 
dience. Terrible  is  the  mountain  of  Moses, 
more  terrible  is  the  mountain  of  Christ,  with 
calls  and  commandments  which  human  nature 
vainly  strives  to  fulfil.  We  pointed  out  the  deep 
consciousness  of  failure  expressed  in  modern 
literature,  and  the  analogy  which  there  is  between 
vain  efforts  to  achieve  ethical  perfection  without 
a  new  force  acting  on  the  life,  and  the  equally 
vain  efforts  to  acquire  by  compliance  with  rule 
a   skill   in    art   which    is    only   possible   to   those 


i68  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

who  possess  the  initial  gift.  Another  line  of 
argument  turns  on  the  significance  of  the  death 
of  Christ.  That  death  is  the  great  fact  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  But  if  righteousness  come 
by  the  law,  it  is  inexplicable,  useless.  Christ  is 
dead  in  vain.  Is  there  then  a  constant  need  in 
the  heart  of  man,  only  met  by  this  offering  up  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  ?  Supposing  we  could  vanquish 
sin  for  the  future  by  an  immense  act  of  will,  can 
the  old  tangled  skein  be  disentangled  ?  The 
answer  is  that  it  cannot.  No  conviction  is 
burned  more  deeply  into  the  inner  heart  of  the 
world  than  this,  that  sin  is  not  done  with  us 
when  we  have  done  with  sin.  There  are  men 
and  women  by  the  hundred  thousand  who  would 
gladly  give  all  they  possess  if  they  could  but  lay 
their  hands  upon  one  hour  of  madness  and  pluck 
it  from  the  past. 

It  is  often  asserted  that  the  sense  of  sin  in 
our  generation  is  very  weak,  and  in  fact  almost 
extinct.  That  sin  itself  has  been  weakened  in 
proportion  nobody  affirms.  In  any  case  God 
has  not  left  Himself  without  a  witness.  If  the 
sense  of  sin  is  not  strong,  the  sense  of  miser}'^ 
is  keener  than  ever.  Surely  no  age  since  Christ 
came   has   been    more   sick  at   heart   than   ours. 


75  CHRIST  DEAD  IN  VAIN?  169 

Amidst  the  splendours  of  outward  prosperity 
and  the  abandonment  of  faith  and  responsibihty, 
gladness  has  almost  died  out.  Wherever  serious 
joy  and  peace  survive,  it  is  on  Christian  soil. 

The  outstanding  facts  which  forbid  the  hope 
of  righteousness  by  the  law  are  those  of  retri- 
bution and  remorse.  Men  may  sneer  at  "  the 
great  cat  Fate  and  her  random  selection  of 
victims,"  but  no  belief  more  obstinately  persists 
than  the  belief  in  a  moral  order,  in  the  inevitable 
punishment  of  transgression.  The  moral  nature 
must  be  satisfied  by  a  moral  rule.  It  is  even 
true  to  sa^'  that  in  a  great  degree  the  consequence 
of  a  moral  nature  is  a  moral  rule.  So  long  as 
men  believe  in  goodness  they  will  desire  to 
befriend  the  righteous  and  to  thwart  the  wicked, 
and  in  that  fashion  to  make  themselves  the  in- 
struments of  the  divine  purpose.  Outside  of 
Christianity,  and  indeed  everywhere  almost, 
among  all  tongues  and  kindreds,  men  have 
declined  to  rest  in  the  troublous  thought  that 
the  ungodly  are  not  plagued  like  other  men. 
A  survey  of  the  facts  of  life  has  brought  them 
to  "absolve  the  gods."  "  Who  is  he,"  exclaimed 
the  ancients  of  Thebes — "  who  is  he  whom  the 
Delphic  rock  of  prophecy  has  denounced  as  the 


I70  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

doer  of  deeds  unutterable,  the  man  of  the  bloody 
hand  ?  Time  it  is  that  he  should  flee  with  foot 
swifter  than  the  horses  of  the  winds.  Already 
hath  the  son  of  Jove  taken  arms  against  him. 
Even  hot  thunderbolts  and  the  fearful  fates  follow 
after,  and  who  shall  escape  them  ?  "  "  And  when 
the  barbarians  saw  the  venomous  beast  hang  on 
the  hands  of  Paul,  they  said  among  themselves, 
*  No  doubt  this  man  is  a  murderer,  whom  though 
he  hath  escaped  the  sea,  yet  vengeance  stiffereth 
not  to  live.'' "  This  strong  belief  has  continually 
fortified  itself  in  the  face  of  much  that  might 
seem  to  stagger  it.  It  has  led  to  countless 
observations  like  this,  that  the  pen  and  ink 
with  which  Charles  signed  the  death-warrant 
of  Lord  Strafford  was  the  very  same  with 
which  he  signed  his  own,  in  the  Bill  for  the 
Long  Parliament.  Indeed,  the  general  disposition 
to  construe  calamities  into  judgments,  however 
inaccurate  in  many  cases,  witnesses  to  the  en- 
during and  ineradicable  strength  of  the  convic- 
tion. 

Even  when  retribution  is  delayed  there  is  the 
fact  of  remorse.  Though  the  evil  deed  may  not 
for  a  time  take  bodily  form  and  confront  the  doer 
of  it  as  a  material  fact,  there  is  a  spiritual  cage  of 


IS  CHRIST  DEAD  IN  VAIN  ?  171 

unclean  birds  in  which  it  is  ordained  the  soul 
should  sit.  When  the  feverish  happiness  and 
the  stark  insensibility  have  had  their  time,  the 
accretions  of  habit  and  custom  fall  away,  the 
disguising  veils  are  rent,  and  that  image  of  the 
Son,  to  which  we  were  to  be  conformed,  gazes 
on  us  accusingly.  The  fact  of  remorse  is  written 
broadly,  profoundly,  over  the  whole  face  of 
modern  unbelieving  literature.  "  I  had  nothing 
of  the  nature  of  conscience  till  then,  and  therefore 
I  could  feel  no  remorse,  and  now  this  is  the  truth 
of  the  whole  matter,  I  am  a  perpetual  prey  to 
remorse.  I  cannot  get  that  wretched  Evelyn  out 
of  my  head.  A  wrong  done  lasts  for  ever.  I 
never  realised  that  before  as  I  do  now.  That 
horrible  cry  of  hers  lingers  in  my  ears,  and  her 
white  face." 

And  although  remorse  may  be  deferred  for  a 
period,  deterioration  begins  the  instant  after  sin. 
There  may  be  a  dreadful  complacency  and  content 
as  friendship  becomes  mercenary  and  home  squalid, 
and  love  animal  and  everything  sinks  down  out 
of  its  nobleness.  The  perception  may  seem 
hopelessly  blunted,  and  the  soul  may  take  to 
all  sensual  delight,  saying  not,  "  Let  us  eat  and 
drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die,"  but  "  Let  us  eat 


172  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

and  drink,  for  to-day  we  are  dead."  But  sooner 
or  later  the  revealing  hour  arrives.  We  come  to 
know  as  in  a  flash  the  depths  of  the  abyss  we 
have  descended.  And  at  last  the  tongues  of  fire 
clasp  the  heart. 

Where  is  the  escape  from  this  ?  Is  it  not 
matter  of  sober  fact  that  only  the  religion  of 
Jesus  has  sought  to  answer  this  question,  that 
Christianity  alone  of  all  religions  has  fairly 
measured  itself  with  retribution  and  remorse  ? 
The  tendency,  increasing  in  later  years,  is  to 
look  to  the  "  mild  gate  of  death,"  not  very  far 
away  from  any,  and  indeed  within  a  step  of  all. 
Those  on  whom  the  unbearable  misery  of  the 
world  lies  heavily,  glorify  death  as  the  great 
peacemaker,  the  friend  to  be  counted  on  who 
never  fails  any  one.  And  they  try  to  believe 
that  in  death  is  the  final  and  complete  payment 
of  the  wages  of  sin.  But  something  protests 
against  this.  The  obstinate  will  to  live  keeps 
many,  who  are  indeed  most  wretched,  from 
suicide.  For  what  if  death  does  not  end  all  ? 
What  if,  with  terror-stricken  hearts,  sinners  may 
meet  on  the  other  side  the  old  humanity  which 
death  could  not  kill  and  take  up  for  ever  the 
old    battle   and    burden-bearing,  which    it  would 


IS  CHRIST  DEAD  IN   VAIN?  173 

seem  as  if  no  man  could  escape  so  long  as  he 
is  man  ?  An  age  like  ours,  which  can  believe 
that  there  are  malicious  and  cruel  powers  above 
us,  cannot  find  it  so  very  difficult  to  believe  that 
these  powers  may  bring  us  through  death  and 
still  torment  us  on  its  other  side.  It  was  said 
long  ago  by  a  very  acute  critic — and  we  incline 
to  think  it  is  true — that  Bishop  Butler  in  his 
"Analogy"  did  not  need  to  assume  a  belief  in 
the  being  of  God.  The  real  necessary  starting- 
point  is  in  the  facts  of  experience.  Whether  or 
not  there  is  one  great  personal  first  Cause,  such 
and  such  is  the  consequence  of  things  in  the 
world  of  experience,  and  therefore  it  may  well 
be  similar  to  this  in  the  next  world.  Such  and 
such  are  the  relations  to  one  another  of  the 
successive  stages  of  life  here,  and  therefore 
there  may  well  be  similar  relations  between 
this  life  and  that  to  come — such  and  such  is 
the  weakness  of  the  presumption  that  death  is 
the  cessation  of  existence,  therefore  the  ground 
is  clear  for  the  direct  proofs  that  we  shall  live 
hereafter. 

But  Christianity  tells  us  that  Christ  has  died 
to  take  away  our  sins,  and  it  speaks  first  to 
our  sense  of  remorse.      It  brings  to  us  a  sense 


174  THE  RETURN  JO  THE  CROSS 

of  pardon.  Is  it  the  experience  of  our  readers 
that  they  hear  much  of  this  in  the  preaching  of 
to-day  ?  If  not,  practically  the  whole  content 
of  the  Christian  Gospel  has  been  omitted.  Our 
sins  are  forgiven  us  for  His  name's  sake.  We 
who  have  believed  do  enter  into  rest.  The  past 
has  been  blotted  from  the  memory  of  God,  and 
the  soul  is  at  home  in  the  bosom  of  atoning  love. 
That  is  the  primal  fact.  The  New  Testament 
does  not  say  much,  though  it  says  more  than 
might  be  supposed,  of  absolution  from  earthly 
penalty.  It  does  not  define  what  God  can  or 
will  do  among  the  shackling  chains  of  inevitable 
cause  and  effect.  But  even  if  the  consequences 
are  unaltered,  they  are  endured  in  a  new  atmo- 
sphere of  love  which  allays  and  soothes  their  pain, 
and  the  suffering  is  not  judicial  punishment, 
neither  is  it  the  uncontrollable  working  out  of 
forces  set  in  motion  by  sin.  It  is  under  the 
measure  and  administration  of  God  the  Father. 
Believing,  we  pass  from  the  world  of  fixity  into 
the  world  of  life.  Other  lords,  the  forces  of 
law,  stern,  absolute,  merciless,  have  had  dominion 
over  us,  now  the  Son  has  made  us  free  indeed. 
The  adamantine  chain  has  been  broken  in  the 
liberty  of  redemption,  and  we  have  entered  into 


IS  CHRIST  DEAD  IN   VAIN  ?  175 

the  freedom  of  Christ's  hfc  and  work  and  death. 
Protestant  theology  is  as  yet  far  behind  Roman 
Catholic  theology  in  its  handling  of  the  great 
doctrines  of  Solidarity,  Reversibility,  and  Expia- 
tion. But  it  is  much,  very  much,  to  enter  into 
the  joyful  consciousness  of  reconciliation,  and  to 
understand  that  nothing  more  can  happen  to  us 
that  does  not  come  in  love  and  blessing,  and  that 
the  long  agony  between  sin  and  grace  will  end 
at  last  in  the  perfect  and  everlasting  triumph  of 
love. 

It  follows  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement 
must  not  be  discussed  in  vacuo.  It  cannot  be 
argued  out  like  a  mathematical  proposition  to  the 
satisfaction  of  those  who  do  not  need  it.  It  is 
understood  where  it  is  needed,  and  only  there.  To 
know  it,  we  must  first  grapple  in  earnest  with  the 
immense  terror  of  eternal  ruin.  The  spirit,  if  the 
expression  maybe  allowed,  must  be  flayed,  and  thus 
offer  a  surface  quick  to  the  lightest  touch.  Then 
the  great  message  of  the  Gospel  is  comprehended 
in  its  everlasting  fulness  and  simplicity.  It  needs 
no  commendation,  no  explaining.  It  meets  the 
whole  wants  of  the  guilty.  The  offering  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  will  be  comprehended  by  the  saints 
more  fully  as  the  years  advance.    Since  the  awful 


176  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

day  on  which  He  died,  it  has  opened  before  each 
generation  new  abysses  of  significance.  It  has 
manifested  more  and  more  wondrously  the  ex- 
ceeding riches  of  God's  grace. 

And  it  meets  a  constant  need,  a  need  which 
has  no  other  answer,  to  which  no  other  answer  is 
even  attempted.  If  preachers  are  taking  in  these 
times  to  a  subHmated  system  of  Christian  ethics, 
if  they  have  practically  discarded  the  whole 
Christian  revelation  except  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  the  Church  may  still  live,  for  there  is 
such  virtue  in  Christ  that  even  to  touch  the  hem 
of  His  garment  is  to  be  healed.  But  the  life  will 
be  languid  and  low.  And  wherever  the  Atone- 
ment is  not  declared  as  the  central  glory  and 
gladness  of  the  Christian  faith,  it  will  haunt  the 
background  as  a  thing  of  fear,  for  St.  Paul's 
judgment  cannot  be  disputed ;  if  righteousness 
come  by  the  law  then  Christ  died  in  vain ;  the 
death  which  is  the  hope  and  peace  of  the  world 
takes  rank  as  its  worst  horror  and  tragedy. 
Righteousness  comes  through  faith  in  His  blood, 
and  the  Church  will  recover  her  old  hope  and 
confidence  when  she  again  strikes  the  deep  organ 
note  of  the  hymn  : 


IS  CHRIST  DEAD  IN   VAIN  ?  177 

"  Thou  standest  in  the  holiest  place, 
As  now  for  guilty  sinners  slain  ; 
Thy  blood  of  sprinkling  speaks  and  prays, 
All  prevalent  for  helpless  man  ; 

Thy  blood  is  still  the  ransom  found, 

And  spreads  salvation  all  around. 

"  God  still  respects  Thy  sacrifice, 

Its  savour  sweet  does  always  please  ; 

The  offering  smokes  through  earth  and  skies. 

Diffusing  life  and  joy  and  peace, 

To  these  Thy  lower  courts  it  comes. 
And  fills  them  with  divine  perfumes. 

"  We  need  not  now  go  up  to  heaven 
To  bring  the  long-sought  Saviour  down. 
Thou  art  to  all  that  seek  Thee  given. 
Thou  dost  e'en  now  Thy  banquet  crown. 
To  every  faithful  soul  appear. 
And  show  Thy  real  presence  here." 


M 


"BEING  LET  GO" 

I  "ME  liberations  of  life  are  its  crises.  Some 
■'■  of  them  are  as  the  opening  of  doors  at 
which  we  have  long  beaten  vainly,  while  others 
are  accomplished  with  all  the  agony  of  sacrifice. 
But  whether  welcome  or  unwelcome,  whether  the 
crown  of  ambitions  long  and  ardently  cherished 
or  the  fulfilment  of  silent  fears,  they  bring  to 
every  one,  save  the  most  thoughtless,  a  certain 
sobriety  and  seriousness.  We  feel  that  now  we 
have  fallen  under  a  new  order  of  influences,  and 
that  this  may  be  followed  by  momentous  catas- 
trophes of  character.  Even  if  the  first  shock  of 
change  is  borne  well,  the  slow,  silent  attrition  of 
time  may  work  to  a  fatal  end.  So  often  a  medi- 
tative heart,  entering  into  the  full  fruition  of 
desire,  misses  the  expected  happiness,  seems  to 
stand  in  a  desolate  dream,  knows  for  the  first 
time  the  real  severity  and  trial  of  life. 

It  happens  to  some  that  their  work  in  life  has 


i8o  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

to  be  changed.  They  have  given  themselves  to 
some  profession  in  preparation  for  which  years 
have  been  spent — in  the  work  of  which  an  appre- 
ciable part  of  life  has  gone  b3\  Through  the 
pressure  of  circumstances  they  are  forced  or 
called  out  of  the  familiar  way.  It  is  best  to  be 
compelled  to  yield.  When  the  decision  is  taken 
out  of  our  hands,  the  conflicts  and  regrets  which 
often  try  the  spirit  long  and  hardly,  become 
impossible.  When  the  way  is  not  clear,  it  is  best 
to  abide  in  our  lot  to  the  end  of  the  days.  Beware 
of  resignatiojis,  was  the  wise  counsel  of  an 
experienced  man.  Yet  to  change  may  sometimes 
be  the  path  of  duty,  although  no  outward  con- 
straint is  laid  upon  us.  In  the  service  of  Christ 
there  is  perhaps  no  distinction  of  high  and  low. 
There  is  a  deep  truth  in  Emerson's  saying  that 
every  man  is  called  to  do  somewhat  unique,  and 
no  man  has  any  other  call.  But  the  forsaking 
the  work,  the  friends,  the  surroundings  that  have 
become  accustomed  and  easy,  is  a  great  crisis. 
When  the  soul  has  to  quit  its  whole  system  of 
things,  there  is,  there  must  be,  peril.  "  Being  let 
go."  Where  shall  we  go  ?  To  our  own  company. 
What  is  our  own  company  ?  Those  we  took 
sweet  counsel  with,  and  with  whom  we  walked  to 


"BEING  LET  GO"    '  i8i 

the  house  of  God  ?  In  the  new  world  we  are 
entering  the  questions  that  once  absorbed  us 
may  sink  into  insignificance.  We  may  be  sur- 
rounded by  associates  with  other  ambitions,  other 
standards.  Above  all,  it  may  cease  to  be  our 
interest  to  fight  for  the  causes  once  passionately 
espoused.  Will  a  new  set  of  principles  corre- 
sponding to  the  new  interests  gradually  replace 
the  old  ?  Will  it  turn  out  that  our  service  was 
no  abiding  devotion  of  the  spirit  ?  Is  the  future 
to  be  in  disharmony  with  the  past  ? 

Another  liberation  which  is  a  crisis  comes  when 
we  are  entering  on  easier  circumstances.  Poverty 
narrows  life,  but  in  some  ways  it  makes  it  easier 
— less  tempted,  less  entangled.  It  is  the  will  of 
God  that  many  should  be  "  straitened  "  all  their 
days,  as  Our  Lord  was  "  straitened."  The  image 
is  that  of  one  walking  on  a  narrow  road  between 
two  walls.  He  cannot  deviate  from  the  path  ; 
his  easiest  way  is  straight  forward.  We  chafe  at 
this,  and  yet  the  restraint  may  be  our  salvation. 
Nothing  in  human  life  impressed  Our  Lord  so 
deeply  as  the  alienating  effects  of  wealth.  There 
is  the  overpowering  temptation  to  pride  —  a 
temptation  fatal  to  all  save  very  high  and  simple 
natures.     There  is  the  temptation  to  forsake  old 


1 82  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

principles  —  a  temptation  which  works  with 
wonderful  subtlety.  A  man  finds  that  the  con- 
victions of  his  youth  put  a  barrier  between  him 
and  those  on  whose  level  he  suddenly  finds  him- 
self. He  reasons  that  if  he  only  were  concerned 
he  could  bear  it,  but  he  cannot  accept  exclusion 
for  his  children.  And,  as  Mr.  Brierley  recently 
pointed  out  in  a  striking  essay,  the  possession  of 
wealth  brings  other  temptations,  so  that  the 
"dangerous  years"  are  rather  in  mid-life  than  in 
youth.  In  youth  most  people  are  held  by  poverty 
in  plain,  industrious,  self-denying  paths.  When 
their  ambition  is  achieved,  and  things  grow 
easier,  they  find  that  the  once  impossible  has 
become  possible ;  and  when  the  old  practice  of 
unsparing  industry  has  been  relaxed,  and  idle 
hours  occur  for  the  first  time  in  the  life,  there  is 
peril.  So  much  is  this  true  that  wise  and  generous 
souls  impose  upon  themselves  in  the  hour  of 
prosperity  a  noble  asceticism. 

We  have  to  encounter  also,  as  the  years 
advance,  the  loss  of  those  friends  whom  we  cared 
to  please,  whose  lives  were  a  strong,  silent 
pressure  towards  God  and  goodness.  The  chill 
of  autumn  begins  to  fall  over  us.  When  this  is 
realised,  when  the  strain  of  existence  has  to  be 


"BEING  LET  GO"  183 

borne  alone,  when  year  by  year  we  sit  in  a  longer 
gallery  of  our  dead,  the  heart  is  filled  with  silent 
forebodings,  with  the  terror  of  the  future.  There 
are  none  remaining  to  feed  the  fires  of  purity, 
and  they  must  die.  Those  to  whom  we  were 
bound  by  sweet  and  reverent  affection  have 
become  silent,  and  there  are  none  to  stir  the 
flagging  powers  of  the  spirit.  We  have  been 
"  let  go  "  of  the  hands  that  detained  us  before  the 
Lord,  and  what  is  to  be  the  end  ? 

Again,  the  widening  of  opinion  is  a  thing  which 
brings  its  own  dangers.  The  children  do  not 
believe  in  all  things  what  their  fathers  believed. 
It  is  not  wise  to  desire  that  they  should  ;  it  is 
better  to  trust  bravely  the  increasing  purpose  and 
the  widening  light.  But  too  often,  when  one 
article  of  the  creed  is  abandoned,  the  whole  is 
left  behind.  And  there  are  many  who  make  it 
their  business  to  show  that  it  should  be  so. 
Admit,  they  say,  one  ray  of  light  from  science 
and  criticism,  and  you  must  cease  to  believe  in 
God.  We  are  to  take  no  heed  of  such  voices, 
from  whatever  quarter  they  come.  They  are  the 
utterances  of  faithlessness  and  despair.  The 
changes  of  the  new  knowledge  have  to  be  borne. 
More  than  that,  they  have  to  be  welcomed,  for  in 


i84  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

the  end  they  will  bring  us  good,  and  only  good. 
But  if  a  wider  creed  means  a  relaxed  life,  there 
has  been  no  gain,  but  loss.  We  would  not  forget 
that  the  new  light  is  a  test  of  fidelity,  and  that  in 
every  fresh  truth  Christ  draws  near,  claiming 
that  we  must  not  love  father  and  mother  more 
than  Him.  The  peculiar  temptation  of  these 
times,  however,  is  perhaps  not  that.  It  is  rather 
the  temptation  to  relax  hold  of  every  Christian 
truth  when  one  assumes  a  different  aspect. 

It  would  be  easy  to  add  to  this  list,  and  most 
people  may  do  it  from  their  own  experience.  It 
will  be  more  profitable  to  ask  what  we  are  to  do 
as  the  irreversible  current  flows  on.  Is  the  issue 
to  be  lowered  temper,  fading  purity,  secular 
thought  and  toil  ?  When  we  lose  the  precarious 
secondary  support,  are  we  to  lose  with  it  also 
that  which  is  primary  and  unfailing  ?  Or,  as  the 
temporal  and  outward  vanishes,  are  we  to  find 
ourselves  armed  with  secret  forces  ?  Gone  forth 
of  human  sympathy  are  we  to  find  the  divine  ? 
Does  the  spiritual  life  retire  to  its  last  retreats  to 
die,  or  is  it,  mayhap,  to  fall  into  the  arms  of  the 
eternal  love  ?  Surely  the  answer  of  the  Scripture 
and  the  experience  of  the  saints  are  not  doubtful. 


••BEING  LET  GO"  185 

Burdened,  lonely,  estranged,  we  shall  still  find  it 
gain  and  not  loss  if  we  receive  succour  from  the 
forces  that  wait  to  be  gracious,  "  Being  let  go," 
it  will  not  be  possible  for  us  to  over-estimate  our 
own  strength,  but  our  very  weakness  is  an  appeal 
to  the  divine  pity.  Our  hope,  our  only  hope  from 
first  to  last,  is  in  the  retentiveness  of  the  divine 
love — in  Christ's  resolute  hold.  "  We  will  come 
unto  Him  and  make  our  abode  with  Him,"  is  a 
promise  great  enough  to  meet  the  last  extremity 
of  our  need,  to  encounter  the  most  formidable 
enmity  of  circumstances.  Our  Lord  has  not  for- 
gotten how,  as  He  moved  towards  the  father, 
He  had  at  last  to  leave  behind  Him  all  human 
companionship.  "Sit  ye  here  while  I  go  and 
pray  yonder."  It  miy  come  to  each  of  us  to  have 
at  last  to  "  pray  yonder."  And  that  is  the  ulti- 
mate experience  of  life.  Thence  we  may  come 
back  to  the  world  and  to  our  task  assured  that 
we  are  safe,  knowing  that  it  is  towards  Christ 
that  our  deepest  thought  and  will  and  love  have 
been  tending  all  the  while,  flagging  under  no 
duty,  simple  and  quiel  in  every  labour,  casting 
no  shadow  over  the  brightness  of  others.  If  the 
comfort    of   the    Scriptures    becomes  to   us  thus 


i86  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

what  it  would  be  if  faith  were  sight,  if  we  win 
the  costly  knowledge  that  spiritual  support  and 
providential  guidance  are  the  abiding  realities,  we 
may  be  of  good  cheer.  For  then  we  have  over- 
come the  world. 


"THEY  WITHOUT  US" 

"  T^HEY  without  us"  and  with  God— how  do 
*  they  regard  us  now  ?  We  know  what  Hfe 
is  to  us  without  them.  But  to-night,  as  they 
sing  their  Evensong  at  the  foot  of  the  Eternal 
Throne,  are  they  touched  by  the  sense  of  our 
necessities  and  longings  on  earth  ?  How  do 
those  who  have  crossed  the  sea  of  life  look  on 
their  old  companions  who  are  still  tossing  on  its 
stormy  tide  ? 

For  answer  let  us  remember  how  Christ 
behaved  Himself  when  He  was  about  to  pass 
into  the  higher  lands  of  God.  He  knew  what 
awaited  Him  in  the  other  world.  The  splendour 
and  the  peace  of  eternal  life  had  been  His 
before  the  world  began.  Did  He  then  carry 
Himself  as  One  indifferent  to  those  He  was 
leaving,  as  One  who  was  to  forget  them  and 
content  Himself  in  a  higher  fellowship  ?  Behold, 
how  He  loved  them  1     As  He  gazed  out  into  the 


i88  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

glory  of  the  Father,  His  thought  was  still  for 
them.  Beneath  the  magic  significant  night,  silent 
with  excess  of  meaning,  He  said,  **  In  my  Father's 
house  are  many  mansions ;  I  go  to  prepare  a 
place  for  you."  He  asked  to  be  remembered, 
and  He  promised  to  return  :  "  This  do  in  remem- 
brance of  me.  ...  Ye  do  show  the  Lord's 
death  till  He  come."  If  Christ  on  the  steps  of 
the  throne  dearly  prized  the  remembrance  of 
those  He  left  behind,  if  Christ's  concern  with  the 
world  did  not  end  with  His  dying,  did  not  end 
even  with  His  ascension,  surely  the  same  is  true 
of  those  who  had  no  life  before  this,  to  whom 
heaven  was  a  strange  place,  who  bore  into  it  no 
loves  except  those  which  began  on  earth. 

Phillips  Brooks  has  said  that  the  haunting  fear 
of  the  disciples  during  the  days  of  our  Lord's 
flesh  must  have  been  that  He  would  leave  them. 
Two  friends  begin  life  together.  They  sit  side 
by  side  at  the  village  school,  on  the  college  bench, 
and  in  due  time  they  go  out  into  the  world.  A 
few  years,  and  one  has  greatly  distanced  the 
other.  He  has  shown  more  various  powers, 
greater  energy,  quicker  apprehension.  His  mind 
has  become  familiar  with  the  regions  of  which  his 
old    companion   knows    nothing.      The    ancient 


"THEY  WITHOUT  US"  189 

friendship  may  be  kept  up,  but  an  element  of 
pain  has  entered  it.  One  feels  that  his  friend 
has  passed  into  other  experiences,  has  gone 
whither  he  cannot  come.  In  other  words,  his 
friend  has  left  him  in  the  spirit,  if  not  outwardly. 
Of  two  comrades,  one  discovers  the  glory  ot 
Christ,  the  other  remains  in  blindness,  and  the 
two  spirits  cannot  again  enter  into  free  and  rich 
communion.  Christ,  as  the  disciples  saw,  was 
rising  higher.  The  interval  between  Him  and 
them  seemed  to  widen.  Near  as  He  might  be, 
there  was  an  infinite  separateness  which  fell  ever 
and  anon  on  all  their  relations.  There  was  a 
fear  which  He  was  at  last  to  confirm,  that  He 
would  depart  from  this  mortal  life,  and  that  His 
visible  presence  would  vanish  from  their  eyes. 
The  last  distress  was  but  the  culmination  of 
many  misgivings  that  had  gone  before  it.  The 
disciples  kept  thinking  that  the}'  were  not  love- 
worthy, that  Christ,  who  knew  them,  who  was  so 
far  above  them,  could  not  be  touched  by  an}' 
abiding  affection  for  men  so  ignorant,  so  sinful, 
so  weak  as  they. 

This  was  because  they  did  not  understand  the 
meaning  of  love.  A  thoughtful  writer  has  said 
that  one  of  the  last  lessons  life  teaches  is  the 


igo  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

difference  between  love  and  admiration.     At  first 
we  believe  that  they  are  the  same,  and  think  that 
we   prize    love   when   we    are    really  exulting  in 
admiration.     But  heaven  is  the  world  of  love,  not 
the  world  of  admiration.     The  disciples  rejoiced 
when  men  admired  them,  when  the  spirits  were 
subject  unto  them.     At  the  outset  of  His  work, 
Jesus  Himself  was  tempted  to  accept  admiration 
at  the  cost  of  love.     He  rejected  it,  and  had  to 
make  the  most  of  such  love  as  was  given  Him, 
for  of  admiration    He  had  very  little  from  His 
puzzled   and    stammering  followers.     Indeed,  as 
the  same  writer  remarks,  love  is  hard  to  express ; 
one  must  master  half  a  dozen  languages  besides 
that  of  the  tongue  before  he  can  render  it.     Ad- 
miration is  a  pungent,  concentrated,  unmistakable 
thing,  and  men  drink  it  in  as  the  elixir  of  life. 
Doubtless,  when  admiration  is  sincere,  it  elevates 
those  who  give  it,  and  it  may  greatly  help  and 
quicken  those  who  receive  it.     It  is  the  starved 
heart  that  does  not  know  what  it  is  generously  to 
admire.      Multitudes  of  men  and  women  would 
have  acquitted  themselves  more  worthily  if  they 
had  received  at  the  right  time  the  encouragement 
they  had  earned.     Still,  admiration  will  not  com- 
pare with  love.      Admiration  at    the  best  takes 


"THEY  WITHOUT  US"  191 

hold  of  something  which  is  not  the  essence  of  the 
soul.    Admiration  is  based  too  often  on  the  power 
to  do  brilliant  things.     Admiration  may  have  even 
a  lower  foundation  than  that ;  it  may  rise  or  fall 
with  the  appreciation  of  the  world.     So  long  as  a 
man    succeeds,    it    follows   him.      Whenever   he 
appears  to  fail,  even  though  the  apparent  failure 
may  be  an  actual  triumph,  it  turns  away  in  dis- 
appointment.    Love  does  not  depend  on  anything 
external ;  love  does  not  ask  the  opinion  of  others  ; 
love  lays  hold  of  the  heart  and  clings  to  it.     It 
attaches  itself  to  what  endures,  rejoices,  not  that 
the  spirits  are  subject  to  the  dear  ones,  but  rather 
is  glad  because  their  names  are  written  in  heaven. 
"  Love   beareth    all   things,  believeth  all  things, 
hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things."     Love  can 
survive    straining    and    bruising;    admiration    is 
brittle.     Admiration  replaces  one  ideal  very  easily 
by  another.     Love  cannot  forget.     It  holds  the 
door  open  for  new-comers,  but  it  lets  no  guest 
pass  out.     Admiration  is  the  spectator  that  turns 
away  when  its  eyes   are   feasted.     Love  is    the 
communicant  at  the  table  of  a  perpetual  sacra- 
ment. 

Now  the  misgiving  of  the  disciples  was  due  in 
part  at  least  to  this  confusion  between  admiration 


192  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

and  love.  Very  likely  when  Jesus  chose  them, 
they  imagined  that  He  saw  something  in  them 
the  world  had  missed,  that  He  admired  some  gift 
of  force,  or  eloquence,  or  courage,  or  wisdom. 
As  the  parting  hour  drew  near,  this  illusion 
wholly  vanished.  They  saw  that  He  was  in- 
finitely above  them.  The  one  possible  consola- 
tion was  that  He  loved  them,  that  He  would  not 
cease,  that  He  could  not  cease,  loving  them 
wherever  He  went.  The  whole  burden  of  His 
sacred  farewell  was  an  assurance  of  this.  He 
expounded  to  them  the  deep  mystery  of  love, 
constant  for  evermore.  He  told  them  that  true 
love  was  union,  that  by  union  His  people 
were  part  of  Himself,  that  seeing  they  were 
knit  to  Him  they  must  follow  Him  wherever  He 
went.  He  was  to  rise  higher,  but  He  rose  to 
raise  them.  The  forces  of  His  heavenly  power 
were  to  be  spent  for  this,  and  He  could  not  see 
of  the  travail  of  His  soul  and  be  satisfied  till  the 
Church  was  with  Him  in  glory.  So  we  know 
that  the  last,  the  least,  the  weakest,  is  awaited  at 
the  fountains  of  life. 

Now  we  can  answer  our  question,  and  silence 
our  misgiving.  "They  without  us  shall  not  be 
made  perfect";  "they  without  us"  could  not,  if 


"THEY  WITHOUT  US"  193 

we  might  dare  to  say  it,  be  made  perfect  even  by 
the  love  of  God.  The  perfection  of  the  blessed 
dead  cannot  be  achieved  till  the  living  they  wait 
for  come.  We  feel  that  we  are  not  worthy  now 
to  loose  their  shoe-latchet,  or  to  touch  their  gar- 
ments' hem  ;  but  since  love  is  love,  that  must  not 
trouble  us.  While  they  complete  themselves  in 
regions  beyond  our  view,  we  are  to  remember 
them,  to  look  for  them,  to  prepare  for  them.  We 
must  try  to  keep  the  straight  path,  so  far  as  we 
can  see  it,  to  seek  that  we  may  reach  the  spirit- 
land  unsoiled  and  noble.  They  remember  us, 
they  wait  for  us,  they  will  welcome  us.  They 
are  saying,  if  we  had  ears  to  hear,  **  Dearly  be- 
loved and  longed  for,  my  joy  and  crown,  so  stand 
fast  in  the  Lord,  my  dearly  beloved." 


THE  WEIGHT  OF  THE  ENDS  OF  THE 
WORLD 

A  A  yRITING  to  the  Corinthians,  St.  Paul 
^  ^  recalls  the  experiences  of  the  fathers, 
and  tells  us  that  these  things  were  written  for 
our  admonition  upon  whom  the  ends  of  the 
world  are  come.  Writing  to  the  Romans,  he 
says  more  fully,  "  Whatsoever  things  were 
written  aforetime  were  written  for  our  learning, 
that  we,  through  patience  and  comfort  of  the 
Scriptures,  might  have  hope."  We  are  con- 
scious, as  the  first  believers  were,  of  the  weight 
of  the  ends  of  the  world.  The  century  draws  to 
its  close,  and  men  are  oppressed  by  an  unwonted 
burden.  The  buoyant  enthusiasm  of  the  years 
not  very  far  distant,  when  it  seemed  as  if  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  were  to  go  under  and 
become  the  one  kingdom  of  the  Lamb,  has  passed 
away.     Apathy  is    the  order  of   things  in  ever}- 


igG  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

sphere.  Enthusiasms  fail  and  flag,  and  even  the 
faithful  question  why  so  little  has  come  of 
schemes  into  which  much  heart  has  been  thrown, 
and  for  which  great  sacrifices  have  been  made. 
Of  course  there  is  true  gain,  though  little  plea- 
sure, in  getting  rid  of  the  false  enthusiasms  and 
misleading  hallucinations  of  youth.  But  to  have 
passed  through  vast  tracts  of  thought  and  feeling 
and  effort,  and  to  realise  at  the  end  of  them  that 
the  current  is  against  us,  to  feel  in  its  terrible 
force  the  temptation  to  give  all  up,  to  drift  with 
the  tide  of  opinion,  and  to  end  as  the  champions 
and  apologists  of  what  our  best  years  were  spent 
in  rebuking  and  withstanding — this  indeed  is 
bitter.  Ours  is,  books  like  Max  Nordau's  tell  us, 
a  time  of  feverish  restlessness  and  blunted  dis- 
couragement. Nordau  describes  very  well  the 
Jin  de  Steele  sentiment  as  a  practical  emancipation 
from  traditional  disciplines  which  theoretically 
are  still  in  force.  It  seems  as  if  the  higher 
aspirations  of  life  were  stinted  and  cramped,  as  if 
cold  water  were  thrown  upon  noble  and  burning- 
impulses,  as  if  the  wisdom  of  years  were  won 
only  to  mislead  and  chill,  as  if  high  and  severe 
views  of  duty  were  but  morbid  states  of  con- 
science, in  due  time  to  be  outlived. 


WEIGHT  OF  THE  ENDS  OF  THE  WORLD      197 

Nordau  says,  truly  enough,  that  it  is  ridicu- 
lous to  attach  importance  to  the  end  of  a  centur}- 
in  itself.  A  century  is  not  a  living  being,  born 
like  a  beast  or  a  man,  passing  through  all  the 
stages  of  existence,  gradually  ageing  and  declining 
after  blooming  childhood,  joyous  youth,  and 
vigorous  maturity,  to  die  with  the  expiration  of 
the  hundredth  year,  after  being  afflicted  in  its  last 
decade  with  all  the  infirmities  of  mournful  senility. 
As  he  reminds  us,  the  division  of  time  is  not 
identical  among  civilised  beings.  The  Moham- 
medans are  reckoning  their  fourteenth  century, 
and  the  Jews  their  fifteenth  century,  while  every 
day  a  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  human  beings 
are  born  for  whom  the  world  begins  with  that 
same  day.  Still,  he  is  wrong,  perhaps,  in  saying 
that  they?;/  dc  siecle  tendency  rises  from  the  habit 
of  the  human  mind  to  project  externally  its  own 
subjective  states.  There  is  more  than  this.  At 
certain  periods  we  strike  a  balance  ;  we  are  con- 
scious of  a  transition  ;  we  reckon  our  gains  and 
losses,  and  it  is  but  too  likely  that  the  results 
may  disappoint  us  even  before  we  have  settled 
accounts.  There  are  forebodings  that  make  the 
heart  sink  and  unnerve  the  hand.  The  harvest  falls 
far  short  of  our  hopes,  and  we  cannot  summon  any 


igS  THE  RETUEN  TO  THE  CROSS 

true  confidence  about  the  future  before  us.  The 
earl}'  Christians  had  something  of  the  same  feel- 
ing. As  the  years  wore  on  they,  too,  felt  as  if 
every  tradition  were  rending,  and  as  if  to-morrow 
would  not  link  itself  with  to-day.  In  other 
words,  it  is  to  the  fui  dc  sicclc  feeling  that  St. 
Paul  addresses  himself. 

In  such  a  world,  and  at  such  an  hour,  the 
Apostle  tells  us,  we  are  left  with  the  Holy 
Scriptures. 

He  reminds  us,  indeed,  of  the  necessity  and 
the  majesty  of  patience.  Those  to  whom  he 
spoke,  as  he  speaks  to  us,  had  seen  much  of  life's 
actual  weariness,  pettiness,  failures,  insignifi- 
cance, but  they  had  seen  also,  else  they  were 
sadly  blind,  something  of  its  wonders,  its  sur- 
prises, its  victories.  Even  a  secular  wisdom  has 
warned  us  against  a  too  easy  despair.  Even 
folly,  as  in  the  German  song,  has  the  same  lesson. 

"  It  will  go  better  yet — it  will  go  better  yet  ! 
The  world  it  is  round,  and  will  roll  if  'tis  let  ! 
'Tis  the  word  of  a  fool !  but  the  word  it  is  true  ; 
And  if  you  be  wise,  you  will  think  so  too. 
It  will  go  better  yet — it  will  go  better  yet ! 
The  world  it  is  round,  and  will  roll  if  'tis  let ! 

This  sighing,  and  moaning,  and  raging,  and  raving 
But  adds  pain  to  pain,  and  new  griefs  to  your  grieving. 


WEIGHT  OF  THE  ENDS  OF  THE  WORLD      199 

Oh  !  shake  not  and  shrink  not  in  ill — look  above  ! 
Time  chan,s;e=;  and  changes  wherever  yon  rove. 

It  will  go  better  yet — it  will  go  better  \-et  ! 
The  world  it  is  round,  and  will  roll  if  'tis  let  I 
It  will  go  better  yet — it  will  go  better  yet  ! 
The  world  it  is  round,  and  will  roll  if  'tis  let  ! 
'Tis  the  word  of  a  fool  !  but  the  word  it  is  true  ; 
A  III  if  you  be  ivise.yoii  ivill  tlunk  so  too." 

Time,  in  the  poet's  words,  brings  roses,  and  the 
loveliest  of  them  all  is  the  white  rose  of  death. 
But  our  true,  abiding  rest,  our  unfailing  comfort, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  sacred  Scriptures.  Open 
them,  and  if  we  will  we  ma}'  escape  from  the 
currents  and  waves  of  the  atmosphere  around  us, 
and  be  plunged  in  the  profoundest  sense  of  the 
presence  of  God. 

We  take  the  word  in  the  larger  sense,  and 
include  the  full  revelation  of  Christ.  There  is  a 
tendency  to  talk  as  if  critical  research  had  some- 
how made  the  Bible  less  necessary,  less  final  than 
it  was  wont  to  be.  We  venture  to  say  that  as 
time  goes  on  it  will  be  more  and  more  clearly  seen 
that  the  Bible  is  the  one  essential  book.  Ewald, 
in  that  characterisation  of  the  Bible  in  which  he 
seems  to  have  ultimately  rested,  says  that  the 
Bible,  and  the  Bible  alone,  is  the  mirror  in  which 
we  can  read  of  the  conditions  and  stages  of  the 


200  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

perfect,  true  religion  which  is  necessary  for  all 
future  generations  of  men.  Robertson  Smith, 
another  believing  critic,  says  that  it  is  from  the 
Bible  only  that  we  learn  how  the  one  purpose  of 
history  is  the  purpose  of  everlasting  love  worked 
out  in  and  through  human  personalit}'  by  a 
personal  redeeming  God.  Not  only  so.  What- 
ever religious  thought  has  done,  there  is  one 
thing  for  which,  after  trial  enough,  it  has  proved 
incompetent ;  it  has  not  added  a  sentence  to  the 
New  Testament.  That  closes  where  it  closed  at 
first. 

We  commence  then  b}^  saying  that  always 
the  true  beginning  of  the  higher  life  and  its 
divine  support  are  to  be  found  in  the  word  of 
God,  and  there  alone.  As  Our  Lord  has  told 
us,  the  seed  is  the  Word  of  God.  The  Word  of 
God  reveals  the  thought  of  God  about  Himself 
and  His  purpose  for  the  race.  B}^  the  Word  of 
the  Lord  were  the  heavens  made,  and  by  the 
same  Word  is  the  divine  life  in  man  created, 
nourished,  and  defended.  Though  every  other 
religious  book  disappeared  from  the  face  of  the 
earth,  though  the  thoughts,  the  prayers,  the 
communion,  the  triumph,  and  the  tears  of  the 
saints   were   lost    to    us,    we    should    still    have 


WEIGHT  OF  THE  ENDS  OF  THE  WORLD      201 

everything  necessar3'  for  the  maintenance  and 
enrichment  of  the  divine  society  if  the  Bible 
were  left  to  us.  With  it  alone  the  Church 
would  know  all  that  it  knows  to-day,  or  rather, 
we  should  say,  would  have  in  possession  all 
true  knowledge,  however  much  or  little  of  it 
had  been  grasped.  This  truth  bears  signifi- 
cantly on  many  present  tendencies.  Even 
believing  preachers  often  try  to  gather  the 
people  with  words  of  man.  They  survey  the 
careers  of  heroes  and  saints,  the}^  discuss  poli- 
tical and  social  problems  of  the  time,  and  in 
various  ways  attempt  to  interest  and  impress 
their  audiences.  But  unless  the  preacher  in- 
terests people  in  what  God  has  said,  he  has 
done  nothing.  Unless  he  impresses  his  hearers 
by  what  God  has  said,  he  has  not  begun  his 
work.  Though  he  were  to  attract  a  multitude, 
and  move  them  by  the  contagious  influence  of 
his  own  earnestness,  he  w'ould  have  made  no 
advance  towards  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
life.  Only  when  he  is  able  to  tell  men  what 
God  has  said,  does  he  begin  to  sow  the  true 
seed.  If  he  sows  the  Word  of  God,  he  will 
never  be  unhopeful,  he  will  be  in  the  large 
world     of    comfort,    and     peace,    and     strength 


202  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

which  God  Himself  inhabits,  and  the  pheno- 
mena of  the  hour  will  be  seen  in  their  true 
transiency.  "The  grass  withereth,  the  flower 
thereof  fadeth  away,  but  the  Word  of  the  Lord 
endureth  for  ever."  And  this  is  the  Word  which 
by  the  Gospel  is  preached  unto  men.  . 

Let  us  try  to  put  the  same  truth  in  another 
form.  We  have  tried,  many  of  us,  by  strenuous 
effort  and  discipline  to  find  God.  It  seemed  to 
us  as  if  God  were  distant,  and  as  if  by  our 
own  painful  searchings  and  journeyings  we  might 
find  Him.  But  it  is  He  who  calls  for  us,  who 
speaks  in  the  righteousness  and  pity  of  His  holy 
Word,  ere  ever  we  call  for  Him.  The  divine  life, 
it  has  been  said  nobly,  begins  when  2vc  answer 
the  cry  of  God,  not  when  God  answers  ours. 
When  He  speaks  to  us,  we  are  past  the  doubtings 
and  the  perplexities  which  break  and  crush  the 
heart.  We  know.  We  rest  in  the  work  that 
was  finished  by  the  dying  Christ,  we  rely  on 
the  will,  and  the  thought,  and  the  love  of  the 
Eternal.  Our  life  flourishes,  for  it  has  for  its 
deep  root  no  conclusion  of  the  human  intellect, 
no  resolution  of  the  human  will,  but  the  truth 
and  will  of  God. 

Once  more,  we  exaggerate  our  petty  share  in 


WEIGHT  OF  THE  ENDS  OF  THE   WORLD      203 

the  divine  work  of  redemption.  We  think  that 
the  Church  would  stand  still  if  our  task  was  not 
performed  rightly.  We  groan  and  fret  as  if  the 
whole  burden  of  the  future  course  of  God's  cause 
among  men  rested  on  our  bowed  shoulders.  But 
it  is  He  who  has  in  charge  the  world  which  He 
loved  so  well  that  He  gave  His  Son  to  die  for  it, 
and  the  Church  which  He  purchased  with  His 
own  blood.  The  new  life  that  is  in  the  world 
has  its  origin  above  the  sphere  of  history.  The 
prophetic  teaching,  as  Robertson  Smith  says, 
proved  by  its  operation  on  history  to  be  what  it 
professed  to  be — no  mere  natural  efflux  of  the 
past  history  and  past  development  of  the  people, 
but  a  new  and  living  power,  the  utterance  of  a  new 
life,  which  because  it  is  a  new  life  could  spring 
only  from  the  infinite  source  of  all  life.  When  He 
to  whom  all  prophecy  points  appeared  in  the 
fulness  of  time,  the  saving  self-manifestation  of 
God  was  completed.  Thus  we  know  that  though 
the  divine  work  of  redemption  has  not  been  a 
steady  advance,  though  the  course  of  the  Christian 
Church  has  not  been  always  upwards  and  on- 
wards, but  sometimes  downwards  and  backwards, 
yet  there  has  been  no  interregnum.  There  is  no 
interregnum  now.     The  Lord  reigneth.     We  are 


204  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

to  do  our  utmost,  and  3'et  to  be  sure  that  though 
we  are  needed  b}'  God,  we  are  not  necessary  to 
God  ;  God  wants  us,  but  God  can  do  without  us. 
Our  work  is  to  be  done  with  a  peaceful  and  high 
heart.  If  we  keep  ourselves  to  the  Word  of  God, 
we  shall  in  time  have  imparted  to  us  something 
of  its  divine  serenity.  Why  should  we  not  rise 
to  the  calmness  of  an  Apostle's  thought  ?  We 
talk  of  the  trend  of  things,  of  the  irresistible  drift 
of  opinion,  where  St.  Paul  would  have  quietly 
spoken  of  the  "  spirit  that  now  worketh  in  the  chil- 
dren of  disobedience."  About  the  great  future  we 
may  be  confident,  even  though  the  little  future  is 
dark  to  us,and  even  though  attempts  to  penetrate  it 
may  seem  like  straining  the  eyes  at  nightfall  over 
the  edge  of  a  precipice. 


THE  BACKWATER  OF  LIFE 

A  NOTEWORTHY  article  was  published 
-'*■  lately  by  Mr.  James  Payn.  The  key- 
note is  struck  in  the  first  sentence  :  "  It  is  a 
strange  feeling  to  one  who  has  been  immersed  in 
affairs,  and  as  it  w^ere  in  the  mid-stream  of  what 
we  call  life,  to  find  oneself  in  its  backwater, 
crippled  and  helpless,  but  still  able  to  see  through 
the  osiers  on  the  island  between  us  what  is  pass- 
ing along  the  river,  the  passenger  vessels,  and 
the  pleasure  boats,  and  to  hear  faintly  the  voices, 
and  the  laughter,  and  the  strong  language 
mellowed  by  distance  from  the  slow-moving 
barges."  He  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  bitter  sense 
of  humiliation  which  comes  from  being  reduced 
to  dependence  upon  others.  True,  one  is  made 
to  know  the  immeasurable  goodness  of  humanity, 
but  those  in  the  backwater  have  no  means  of 
showing  the  gratitude  with  which  they  arc  filled. 


2o6  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

They  think — and  this  seems  to   be   the  special 
pang — of  the  blessedness  of  the  past,  when  they 
were  too  happy  to  be  aware  of  their  happiness. 
The  delights   of  love  and    labour    are   forbidden 
them,  and  dead,  unhappy  nights  usher  in  weary 
days  all  empty  of   delight.      "  '  Oh,    Lord,  how 
long  ?  '  is  then  our  bitter  cry."     The  paper  closes 
with  the  words  :     "  One  of  the  saddest  conditions 
to  which  the  human  mind  can  be    reduced,  not 
from  faith,  but  from    pain  and  weariness,  is  no 
longer  to  fear  the  shadow  feared  of  man."     This 
cry  of  unfeigned   anguish   will   arrest   attention, 
and  will  especially  move  those  whom  for  many 
years  Mr.  Payn  has  charmed  by  his  wisdom,  his 
kindliness,  and  his  wit.     There  is  nothing  weak 
in  his  complaint ;  it  is  a  sad,  hopeless,  magnani- 
mous confession  that  he  has  made  to  the  world. 
He  has  never  been  effusive,  never  wont  to  break 
wantonly    the    silence    that    should    shroud    the 
heart.     With  all  his  frankness,  he  has  habitually 
maintained  the  scrupulous  and  delicate  seclusion 
of  self-respecting  men.     We  have  always  known 
him  to  be  full  of  emotion,  his  vivacity  has  never 
been  hard,  and  his  wit  has  never  been  merciless. 
Sometimes,   but  very  rarely,  he    has    shown  us 
glimpses  of  his  deeper  nature,  as  in  the  pathetic 


THE  BACKWATER  OF  LIFE  207 

lines  where  he  questions  how  long  that  pause  of 
niournfulest  silence,  which  comes  when  the 
doors  have  closed  behind  us,  will  last.  But  as  a 
rule,  he  has  posed  as  a  gay  and  cheerful  stoic, 
and  it  must  be  owned  that  the  rags  of  stoicism, 
threadbare  though  they  be,  have  covered  truly 
noble  natures  in  these  days,  as  in  the  time  of  the 
Antonines.  But  here  his  stoicism  breaks  down 
hopelessly  before  the  facts  of  life. 

Mr.  Payn's  complaint  of  life's  close  chimes  in 
with  a  prevailing  feeling.  It  would  not  be  too 
much  to  say  that  sententious  wisdom  and  sen- 
timental poetry  combine  in  disparaging  the  final 
years.  "  That  powerful  distemper  old  age,"  as 
Montaigne  has  it,  is  universally  looked  upon  as 
at  best  bringing  us  to  flat  and  dull  experiences, 
a  period  of  disappointment,  failure,  and  flagging- 
life,  full  of  losses  that  find  no  compensation.  It 
is  useless  to  say  in  reply  that  the  passing  of 
youthful  ardour  is  made  up  for  by  experience, 
by  liberty,  by  the  influence  which  years  bring. 
Especially  is  it  useless  when  youth  has  been 
brilliant  and  glorified.  Nothing  then  seems  to 
atone  for  the  flight  of  the  passionate  and  exciting- 
years.  Nowadays,  when  the  tendency  is  so 
decidedly  towards  the  enriching  of  early  fife,  it  is 


2o8  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

inevitable  that  the  later  period  should  seem  to  many 
poor  in  comparison.  Readers  of  Horace  Walpole 
will  remember  his  lugubrious  forebodings  when 
he  was  only  between  forty  and  fifty.  He  wrote  : 
"  Do  not  think  it  is  pain  that  makes  me  give  this 
low-spirited  air  to  my  letter.  No  !  it  is  the  pros- 
pect of  what  is  to  come,  and  the  sensation  of 
what  is  passing,  that  affects  me.  The  loss  of 
youth  is  melancholy  enough,  but  to  enter  into  old 
age  through  the  gate  of  infirmity  is  most  dis- 
heartening." At  sixty-six  he  described  himself 
as  a  ruin,  and  the  gloom  steadily  advanced  for 
the  fourteen  years  more  left  to  him.  We  con- 
stantly hear  the  fret  and  moan  of  dissatisfaction 
that  youth  has  gone.  The  observed  of  all 
observers  may  even  come  to  shrink  with  shame 
from  the  notice  they  once  courted. 

"  Shall  I  believe  him  ashamed  to  be  seen  ? 
For  only  once  in  the  village  street, 
Last  year,  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  his  face, 
A  grey  old  wolf  and  lean." 

We  bethink  ourselves  with  a  thrill  of  wonder 
that  Mr.  Payn's  "  backwater  of  life "  is  John 
Bunyan's  land  of  Beulah.  It  is  there,  when 
mortal  strength  is  spent  and  the  earthly  life 
almost   run  out,  that    the   pilgrims  "  have    more 


THE  BACKWATER  OF  LIFE  209 

rejoicing  than  in  parts  more  remote  from  the 
kingdom  to  which  they  are  bound."  The  dreamer 
is  very  bold.  For  Christians  themselves  it  is 
hard  to  believe  that  the  days  before  death  may 
be  the  radiant  crown  of  earthly  existence,  filled 
with  the  triumph  and  the  peace  of  heaven.  This 
is  the  ultimate  glory  of  Christian  experience,  and 
it  rests  daily  on  lives  where  the  powers  of  the 
world  to  come  visibly  counteract  and  reverse  the 
forces  of  time  and  nature.  Is  it  so,  that  as  life 
lingers  out  to  its  last  moment  amid  the  wreck  of 
all  things,  as  the  air  echoes  dully  with  the  sound 
of  lamentation,  as  death  after  death  falls  heavily 
on  the  heart,  a  new  lustre  may  fall  on  the  fading 
years  ?  Is  it  so,  that  the  dry  rod  may  bud  and 
blossom,  and  that  at  the  moment  of  withering  a 
new  life  may  rush  in  through  all  the  arid  fibres  ? 
Even  so  if  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus  sets  us  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death. 

But  we  are  willing  to  argue  upon  lower  ground. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  familiar  and  certain  of 
experiences  that  faith  brightens  the  otherwise 
darkened  days  of  life.  We  will  not  speak  of  the 
wonderful  heroism  with  which  hopeless,  incurable 
agony  is   often   borne,  and  that  by  tender  and 


210  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

shrinking  souls.  But  there  is  a  generous  sub- 
mission to  helplessness,  to  being  served,  which  we 
have  often  thought  reveals  patience,  tenderness, 
purity,  and  religion  at  their  highest.  For  it  is 
part  of  the  Christian's  training  to  be  willing  to 
receive  S3anpathy  as  well  as  to  give  it.  Men  and 
women  who  are  full  of  care  and  service  for  others 
often  keep  a  proud  silence  on  their  own  grief. 
Yet  the  Christian  way  would  be  to  tell  it,  for  the 
Christian  should  recognise  that  the  deepest  and 
most  lasting  joy  is  in  giving  rather  than  in  receiving. 
Some  readers  will  remember  how,  when  Miss 
Bremer's  character,  "  Ma  chere  Mere,"  is  dying, 
and  her  devoted  servant,  Elsa,  is  advised  to  be 
comforted  by  the  thought  of  her  beloved  mistress 
in  heaven,  she  says,  "  But  what  shall  I  do  without 
her  ?  And  then  she  must  have  somebody  in 
heaven  to  wait  upon  her,  and  be  at  her  side  night 
and  day."  "  She  will  be  with  the  angels  then, 
Elsa."  "  Ah  !  dear  madam,  they  could  not  conform 
to  her  temper  as  I  can.  They  have  not  lived 
with  her  for  forty  years."  The  principle  can  be 
carried  much  higher,  so  high  that  we  do  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  willingness  to  be  ministered 
to  may  in  certain  cases  be  the  most  touching 
and  perfect  form  of  self-abnegation. 


THE  BACKWATER  OF  LIFE  211 

Nor  do  Christians  fear  to  recall  the  joys  behind 
them.  They  shut  the  door  softly  on  the  gladness 
that  is  over,  and  look  forward.  No  chill  need 
fall  on  the  happy  hours — they  will  be  our  own 
again.  Christ  Himself  had  His  "  No  more,"  but 
all  the  sadness  went  as  He  thought  of  re-union. 
"  I  will  not  drink  henceforth  of  this  fruit  of  the 
vine  till  I  drink  it  new  with  you  in  my  Father's 
kingdom."  So  the  Christian  "No  more"  is  only 
till  "the  day  in  the  kingdom  of  God." 

Again,  Christianity  will  help  us  to  meet  en- 
forced inaction.  It  will  help  us  more  easily,  no 
doubt,  if  we  have  laboured  while  we  could.  Then 
we  can  reflect  in  the  long,  passive  hours  that  "  of 
toil  and  moil  the  day  was  full."  Even  if  the 
cherished  work  has  been  forbidden,  if  it  has  been 
hardly  begun,  or  not  begun  at  all,  the  depression 
of  failure  may  very  well  be  banished  b}^  the 
thought  of  an  undying  life  in  God.  After  all,  we 
are  never  old  till  we  feel  old,  and  nobody  feels 
old  until  he  feels  that  his  work  is  done.  So  long 
as  there  is  in  us  some  faculty  hidden  from  day- 
light, some  capacity  still  unrevealed,  some  work 
still  to  accomplish,  we  are  young,  and  faith  looks 
to  the  future  life  as  the  development  and  com- 
pletion of  this.     The  night  taper,  says  one,  burns 


212  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

long  enough  if  it  lets  in  the  Eternal  Day.  There 
may  be,  there  doubtless  is,  a  momentary  pang  in 
surrendering  some  kinds  of  work  to  which  we 
thought  ourselves  specially  elected,  and  yet  in 
these  things  also  God  is  worthy  of  our  trust. 
Perhaps  there  is  no  such  unspeakably  pathetic 
resignation  as  that  of  a  mother  parting  from  her 
children.  And  yet  every  day  with  what  vic- 
torious faith  is  this  care  cast  upon  God  !  Schiller, 
on  his  premature  deathbed,  kissed  and  blessed 
his  youngest  child  of  seven  months  old,  and 
gazed  at  the  helpless  creature  with  yearning 
tenderness.  Yet  a  little  later,  when  the}'  asked 
him  how  he  felt,  he  said,  "Calmer  and  calmer." 
Is  there  any  better  preparation  for  life  and  death 
than  that  of  the  girded  loins  and  the  burning 
lamp  ? 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  TYRANNUS 

AS  Dr.  Liddon  points  out  in  his  "  Clerical 
Life  and  Work,"  the  great  opportunity  of 
St.  Paul's  life  was  perhaps  his  teaching  for  two 
years  in  the  school  of  Tyrannus  at  Ephesus. 
The  Apostle  himself  describes  it  as  "  a  great  and 
effectual  door."  Its  claims  were  so  urgent  that 
they  kept  him  at  Ephesus  when  a  great  moral 
struggle  was  going  on  at  Corinth,  and  his  sen- 
tence was  imperatively  demanded.  He  had  been 
preaching  at  Ephesus,  first  in  the  synagogue, 
where  he  was  denounced  in  terms  of  insult. 
Then  he  and  his  gathered  in  one  of  the  lounges 
attached  to  the  gymnasiums  and  public  baths  in 
the  city,  which  was  frequented  by  Tyrannus,  pro- 
bably a  teacher  of  rhetoric.  There  for  two  years 
he  preached  every  day,  with  results  that  affected 
deeply  both  Jewish  and  pagan  society.  Dr. 
Liddon  remarks  suggestively,  "  Every  ministerial 
life  has  such  opportunities  sooner  or  later.     We 


214  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

may  work  for  some  years  amidst  the  discourage- 
ments of  the  synagogue,  but  the  school  of 
Tyrannus  comes  at  last." 

"The  school  of  Tyrannus  comes  at  last."  This 
holds  true  of  public  workers  in  every  sphere. 
Those  who  set  their  thoughts  high  at  the  begin- 
ning come  in  the  end  to  their  desire.  There  is  a 
point  at  which  life  spreads  out  and  comes  to 
larger  things.  A  sun-burst  falls  on  the  road. 
The  days  grow  full  and  rich.  They  are  undis- 
turbed by  misfortune,  reverse,  and  foreboding. 
The  preacher  who  has  a  gift  for  his  work  sooner 
or  later  has  a  chance  of  showing  it.  He  gains 
the  ear  of  the  people,  and  is  set  in  a  conspicuous 
place.  He  is  able  to  hold  and  conquer  men's 
minds.  There  is  a  living  interest  in  him  and 
his  proclamations.  This  period  may  pass  by. 
Few  men  maintain  themselves  on  the  high 
tableland  of  uniform  prosperity  for  many  years. 
When  their  life  is  summed  up,  it  is  easy  to 
point  out  and  to  limit  the  period  of  shining 
success. 

The  same  truth,  of  course,  applies  equally  to 
the  statesman,  the  artist,  the  author.  There  are 
few  more  pathetic  chapters  in  biography  than  the 
story  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's   sad,  heroic  struggle 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  TYRANNU5  215 

against  disease  and  decay.  He  lived  for  many 
years  in  the  broad  sunshine.  His  prosperity  was 
too  great  to  last,  too  equal,  too  complete,  too  un- 
chequered.  At  last  something  came  to  **  tame 
the  glaring  white "  of  that  splendour.  One  by 
one  the  gifts  of  fortune  were  withdrawn.  The 
brave  old  man  calmly  saw  them  vanish,  till  last 
of  all  his  magic  wand  was  broken.  But  he  could 
hardly  realise  that  his  imagination  no  longer 
kindled  to  the  old  heat,  that  the  spell  was  begin- 
ning to  fail  him.  "  I  have  lost,  it  is  plain,  the 
power  of  interesting  the  country,  and  ought  in 
justice  to  all  parties  to  retire  while  I  have  some 
credit ;  but  this  is  an  important  step,  and  I  will 
not  be  obstinate  about  it  if  it  be  necessary." 
Lesser  men  have  in  their  degree  the  same  experi- 
ence. With  infinite  reluctance  they  begin  to  note 
painfully  that  their  books  excite  less  and  less 
interest,  that  the  disappointed  eyes  of  their  old 
readers  are  turning  away  from  them.  New  stars 
are  rising,  and  the  old  are  disappearing.  So  far 
as  these  public  experiences  are  concerned, 
outsiders  see  the  end  of  the  golden  hour 
much  more  quickly  than  those  who  have  lived  it. 
But  even  for  them  it  becomes  vain  to  struggle 
against     the     conviction     that     the     sunlight    is 


2i6  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

over,  and  that  henceforth  the  path  must  slope 
downwards. 

Nearly  all  of  us,  even  the  humblest,  have  in 
our  own  lives  a  time  which,  as  we  look  back  upon 
it,  we  know  to  have  been  blessed  and  warmed  by 
love  as  no  time  can  be  again.  There  were  calm 
years  when  the  home  circle  was  unbroken,  when 
the  longings  of  the  heart  were  answered.  Days 
succeed,  it  may  be,  in  which  we  are  tossed  from 
pain  to  pain.  Even  if  the  heartache  is  deadened 
and  the  life  finds  an  outlet  in  other  interests, 
there  is  still  the  memory  of  the  past  and  those 
who  peopled  it, 

"  Whose  comin'  step  there's  ears  that  won't, 
No,  not  Hfelong,  leave  off  awaitin'." 

The  Antiquary  with  his  packet  of  letters 
marked  Eheu  Evelina;  Mr,  Gilfil  in  the  "Scenes 
of  Clerical  Life,"  are  types  of  what  exists  under 
the  most  unlikely  exteriors. 

Looking  back  upon  such  times,  after  they  are 
irrevocably  over,  and  after  something  has  been 
learned  by  actual  experience  of  life  and  labour 
and  death,  our  wonder  is  that  they  gladdened 
us  so  little.  It  seems  incredible  that  these  days, 
now  thought  of  with  such  yearning,  should  have 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  TYR ANNUS  217 

seemed  common  and  tame  while  they  passed. 
Yet  perhaps  few  can  say  that  they  prized  as  they 
should  have  done  the  opportunity  that  was  given 
them.  They  took  for  granted  what  they  had, 
and  looked  on  to  a  more  abundant  future.  They 
suffered  small  things  to  break  their  peace.  They 
were  not  aware,  as  they  should  have  been,  of  the 
goodness  of  God  and  man.  These  lines  will  be 
read  by  many  who,  as  they  read  them,  have 
greater  means  of  happiness  and  usefulness  than 
they  will  ever  have  again.  Let  them  prize  their 
good  things,  and  yet  not  prize  them  overmuch. 
Perhaps,  when  we  have  left  the  school  of 
Tyrannus  behind,  we  shall  perceive  that  our 
work  in  it  might  have  been  done  better.  Many 
preachers,  many  authors,  lose  their  audience 
because  they  yield  to  vanity  and  sloth.  So  their 
hour  passes  never  to  return.  But  oftener,  per- 
haps, the  end  comes  in  the  providence  of  God. 
The  message  has  been  delivered,  and  there  is  no 
more  to  say.  If  this  is  our  case,  let  us  be 
thankful  that  our  day  was  given  us  and  that  our 
work  has  been  done.  Let  us  descend  without 
repining,  and  give  over  our  place  to  others. 
Those  who  are  still  in  the  noontide  of 
opportunity    should    not    wait    for    trouble    and 


2i8  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

failure  to  teach  them  sympathy  with  defeated 
men.  Too  often,  when  things  are  well  with 
us,  we  refuse  to  see  the  importunate  faces  that 
look  through  the  silken  curtains.  We  think  we 
can  walk  sure  and  strong  and  steady  on  the 
heights,  that  we  know  how  to  abound.  In- 
fluence stays  longest  with  those  who  use  it 
gently,  whose  power  walks  hand  in  hand  with 
tenderness,  patience,  consideration.  There  are 
many  who,  like  Cordelia,  love  and  are  silent.  A 
day  will  come  when  they  would  give  the  world 
if  they  could  say  the  words  that  might  be 
spoken  now. 

When  the  school  of  Tyrannus  is  left  behind, 
and  we  settle  down  to  obscure  labour,  daily 
becoming  more  obscure  and  feeble,  when  life 
grows  solitary,  let  us  not  too  much  regret  what 
has  gone  from  us.  The  heart  should  not  be  dis- 
turbed, but  deepened  by  the  thought  that  the 
past  is  past.  It  was  ours.  We  have  had  our 
day  and  lived  our  life.  There  is  still  service  to 
render  ;  and  true  love  knows  no  struggle  of  great 
and  little.  What  was  best  in  the  past  is  ours 
more  than  it  ever  was.  Wordsworth's  lovely 
poem  on  his  last  meeting  with  Scott  is  inspired 
by  the  Christian  temper : 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  TYR ANNUS  219 

"  No  public  and  no  private  care 

The  free-born  mind  enthralling, 
We  made  a  day  of  happy  hours 

Our  happy  days  recalling. 
And  if  as  Yarrow,  through  the  woods 

And  down  the  meadow  ranging. 
Did  meet  us  with  unaltered  face. 

Though  we  were  changed  and  chang  ng, 

If  then  some  natural  shadow  spread 

The  inward  prospect  over, 
The  soul's  deep  valley  was  not  slow 

Its  brightness  to  recover. 
Ah  no,  the  visions  of  the  past 

Sustained  the  heart  in  feeling. 
Life  as  she  is— our  changeful  Life, 

With  friends  and  kindred  dealing." 

Besides,  we  are  to  look,  not  backward  nor 
downward,  but  onward.  The  best  is  before  us. 
Whatever  has  been  forfeited  or  misprized,  our 
hearts  are  to  be  filled  with  a  splendid  and 
exalting  hope.  Not  far  from  us  are  the  new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth.  This  life  at  its 
highest  has  the  glory  of  the  star,  and  we  pass 
to  the  glory  of  the  sun. 

In  that  He  saith,  A  new  earth,  He  hath  made 
the  first  old. 


THE  MOTHERS  OF  ST.  PAUL 

IN  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans  St.  Paul  salutes 
"  Rufus,  chosen  in  the  Lord,  and  his  mother 
and  mine."  In  his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  he 
applies  the  cherished  name  to  that  heavenly 
Jerusalem  towards  which  the  tides  of  his  heart 
were  set.  "Jerusalem  which  is  above  is  free, 
which  is  the  mother  of  us  all."  Life  iiii  Gaiizoi, 
it  has  been  said,  is  the  life  of  one  for  whom  over 
and  over  again  what  was  once  precious  has 
become  indifferent.  For  St.  Paul  this  happened 
once  and  for  ever  in  the  hour  when  he  saw  the 
face  of  Christ  and  heard  His  voice  from  heaven. 

The  Apostle's  life  was  rooted  and  grounded  in 
love,  and,  indeed,  we  hear  more  of  love  in  his 
epistles  than  in  the  Gospels.  Love  to  him  was  of 
the  spirit,  rather  than  of  the  earth  and  the  senses. 
The  love  that  mastered  and  filled  him  was 
primarily  the  love  of  Christ.  From  the  day  when 
Christ  called  him,  he  was  carried  out  to  sea  on 


222  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

that  great  wave,  and  he  could  not  return  upon  his 
former  thoughts  or  resist  the  constant  current 
which  drove  him  onward.  That  wave  was  never 
spent.  The  returning  tide  never  cast  him  upon 
the  shore.  To  the  last  the  creating  word  of  St. 
Paul's  universe  was  love.  It  was  life's  crown  to 
love  and  to  be  loved,  and  the  Apostle,  elect  in 
Christ,  was  ever  stretching  forth  the  hand  of 
redemption  and  blessing.  Everywhere  the  great, 
astounding,  overwhelming  fact  that  smote  him  in 
the  face  was  that  men  did  not  know  this  love  of 
Christ,  or  knowing  it  refused  it.  Yet  he  is  silent 
as  to  much.  We  may  almost  say  that  he  ignores 
human  love  in  its  deepest,  most  miraculous,  most 
revealing  sense.  Of  course  he  had  no  room 
in  his  redeemed  nature  for  mere  passion — the 
handful  of  dry  heather,  as  it  has  been  called, 
which  is  set  on  fire  and  cast  into  the  waters  of 
death.  George  Meredith  has  rightly  marked  the 
one  false  note  in  Mr.  M^^ers's  great  poem,  a  note 
struck  in  partial  forgetfulness  of  this.  And  so 
far  as  we  know  the  great  enchantment  was  lacking 
to  his  cup,  that  human  devotion  to  which  the 
solemn  and  sacred  name  of  love  is  best  applied. 
And  yet  we  cannot  tell  what  lava  there  might  have 
been  under  the  snow.     We  cannot  gaze  on  the 


THE  MOTHERS  OF  ST.  PA  UL  223 

Apostle's  inner  life.  He  did  not  wear  his  heart 
on  his  sleeve,  and  none  may  know  what  names 
were  graven  there,  names  that  never  crossed  his 
lips,  names  that  were  part  of  the  sweet  and 
dreadful  past,  names  sunk  into  dim  and  deep 
abysses  whence  no  hand  could  pluck  them  forth. 
What  we  do  know  is  that  his  love  was  mainly 
a  paternal  love.  As  Jowett  says,  there  was  in 
his  heart  "  an  affection  which  seems  to  be  as 
strong  and  as  individual  towards  all  mankind  as 
other  men  are  capable  of  feeling  towards  a  single 
person."  St.  Paul  evermore  beheld  the  world  of 
suffering  beneath  and  beside  the  world  of  joy,  the 
innumerable  multitude  of  the  wretched,  the  for- 
gotten, the  lonely,  benumbed  by  their  long  despair. 
His  place  was  with  them.  His  portion  was  their 
tears  and  toil.  His  affection  was  serious,  patient, 
deliberate  as  that  of  a  heart  touched  to  its  core 
by  the  universal  woe  in  its  length  and  breadth 
and  height.  He  was  as  one  to  whom  the  world 
was  a  great  hospital  and  himself  an  unwearied 
nurse  by  the  bedside  of  the  patients.  He  strove 
to  heal  the  wounds  that  from  generation  to 
generation  remained  unclosed,  and  he  met  each 
emergency  as  it  arose  with  the  calm  wisdom 
which  comes  to  saintly  souls  who  have  explored 


224  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

all  and  have  looked  at  the  worst  in  the  light  of 
reconciling  love.  He  carried  in  his  heart  that 
inward  Presence  which  was  one  day  to  be  revealed. 
He  saw  the  fires  of  love  rising  up  from  under  the 
soil  in  the  midst  of  a  frozen  world.  He  was 
willing  to  be  accursed  from  Christ  for  his  brethren, 
his  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh.  Before  him 
life  spread  as  a  great  shipwreck.  Existence  v/as 
made  up  of  pain.  Men  and  women  wore  the 
burning  crown.  He  possessed  the  secret,  the 
anodyne  that  would  turn  the  racking  agony  into 
peace,  and  wherever  men  needed  healing  or 
wherever  the  healed  needed  to  be  taught  patience 
and  strength,  he  was  busy — bearing  upon  him  the 
care  of  all  the  churches,  coming  out  in  every 
trouble  with  all  his  faculties  roused  and  stimulated, 
knowing  what  to  say  and  what  to  do,  as  a  mother 
by  some  divine  instinct  knows  by  the  bedside  of 
her  ailing  child.  It  was  typical  of  his  life  that  he 
stood  forth  in  the  doomed  ship  in  Adria,  in  the 
darkness  and  despair  of  the  tempest,  to  take 
command  and  speak  the  word  of  heartening 
and  hope. 

It  is  thus  very  moving  and  significant  that  he 
sometimes  felt  the  need  of  being  mothered  and 
found   that  need    supplied.      In   the   absence   of 


THE  MOTHERS  OF  ST.  PAUL  225 

human  sympathy,  he  seemed  sometimes  ahnost 
to  lose  the  power  of  action.  And  human  S3'm- 
pathy  came  in  its  sweetest  form  when  it  asked 
little  and  gave  all,  when  it  comforted  and  cherished 
the  weary,  burdened  Apostle  and  brought  back 
to  him  the  security  and  restfulness  and  peace 
of  childhood.  First  of  all,  he  found  this  comfort 
in  a  nameless  woman,  the  mother  of  Rufus.  Of 
Rufus  we  know  very  little,  perhaps  nothing. 
But  there  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  he  was 
of  Nero's  household,  one  of  St.  Paul's  converts 
and  friends  in  Asia  and  Eastern  Europe,  who 
entered  it  after  conversion  as  purchased  slaves  or 
otherwise.  The  mother  of  Rufus,  who  was  also 
the  mother  of  St.  Paul,  was  thus  probably  obscure 
and  humble.  But  in  the  great  school  where  all 
Zion's  children  are  taught  of  God  and  where 
nothing  avails  but  the  illumination  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  vouchsafed  to  the  obedient  heart,  she  was 
among  the  foremost.  Her  life  was  doubtless 
closely  limited  in  one  sense.  But  it  was  not 
limited  on  the  side  of  the  ideal.  She  built  for 
her  dark  poverty  a  house  not  made  with  hands, 
and  St.  Paul  shared  gladly  and  thankfully  the 
shelter  of  its  roof.  Wordsworth  has  pictured  in 
various  places  kind,  great,  motherly  hearts  among 

p 


226  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

the  poor,  nowhere  perhaps  more  effectively  than 
in  his  poem,  "  The  Old  Cumberland  Beggar  "  : 

"  Man  is  dear  to  man ;  the  poorest  poor 
Long  for  some  moments  in  a  weary  life 
When  they  can  know  and  feel  that  they  have  been, 
Themselves,  the  fathers  and  the  dealers-out 
Of  some  small  blessings ;  have  been  kind  to  such 
As  needed  kindness,  for  this  single  cause. 
That  we  have  all  of  us  one  human  heart. 
Such  pleasure  is  to  one  kind  Being  known, 
My  neighbour,  when  with  punctual  care,  each  week 
Duly  as  Friday  comes,  though  pressed  herself 
By  her  own  wants,  she  from  her  store  of  meal 
Takes  one  unsparing  handful  for  the  scrip 
Of  this  old  Mendicant,  and,  from  her  door 
Returning  with  exhilarated  heart. 
Sits  by  her  fire,  and  builds  her  hope  in  heaven." 

So  St.  Paul  and  his  mother  built  their  hope  in 
the  Heavenly  City  which  was  the  mother  of  both, 
which  is  the  mother  of  us  all. 

We  can  well  conceive  how  the  thought  of  the 
mother  city  comforted  and  strengthened  the 
Apostle  as  the  years  ran  out.  Existence  to  him 
was  always  bounded  and  overspread  by  the  Jeru- 
salem which  is  above.  His  life  was  not  a  journey 
on  and  on  over  the  barren  moor,  with  no  prospect 
before  him  but  the  waste  and  the  sundown. 
Jerusalem,  stable,  motherly,  holy,  was  the  end  of 


THE  MOTHERS  OF  ST.  PA  UL  227 

his  pilgrimage.  She  grew  dearer  and  kinder  with 
the  passing  of  the  days.  Some  whom  he  loved 
were  in  Christ  before  him.  Many  were  in  Jeru- 
salem before  him.  What  was  strange  to  the 
Apostle,  it  has  been  well  said,  was  not  the  in- 
visible, but  the  visible,  not  the  life  of  the  spirit, 
but  the  life  of  the  flesh.  That  life  was  death, 
and  what  ensphered  it  was  not  reality,  but  phan- 
tom. To  him,  as  to  all  believing  souls,  the 
thought  of  death  came  often,  even  in  the  midst  of 
life  and  labour,  with  a  rush  of  home-sickness. 
We  can  see  it  in  this  very  Epistle  to  the  Gala- 
tians,  where  he  braces  himself  to  the  task  of 
dispute,  and  yet  protests  that  his  last  word  has 
been  said,  and  that  he  is  not  to  be  troubled  from 
thenceforth,  because  he  bears  the  absolving  marks 
of  Christ.  So  we  can  conceive  what  was  passing 
when  the  hour  of  his  release  arrived.  To  the 
eye  of  the  world  his  career  ended  in  desertion, 
failure,  collapse.  But  as  the  old  man  was  led 
along  the  Ostian  way  to  die,  his  mother  Jeru- 
salem bent  over  him  with  rapturous  welcome. 
He  saw  those  who  had  gone  before,  the  martyrs 
in  their  robes  of  crimson  and  the  saints  in  white. 
Life  behind  him  was  like  a  far-off  storm  at  sea. 
He  was  filled  with  a  sense  of  everlasting  triumph 


228  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

as  he  neared  the  high  world  he  had  longed  to 
dwell  in,  that  world  whose  air  was  home.  The 
city  of  God  is  glad,  and  her  gladness  transfigured 
him.  He  saw  the  earthly  vanish  and  himself 
entering  into  the  fellowship  whereof  all  the  love 
we  know  is  but  a  trembling  shadow,  that  city 
where  all  we  love  is  restored.  To  the  eye  of 
sense  his  career  ended  as  forlornly  and  lovelessly 
as  might  be.  To  the  eye  of  faith  his  death  was 
the  rising  of  his  mother  to  take  her  wearied  child 
to  her  breast. 


FROM  GLORY  TO  GLORY 

IF  wc  were  asked  at  the  beginning  of  a  3'car 
to  describe  the  course  of  life,  we  might  be 
slow  to  give  for  answer  our  very  inmost  thought. 
And  if  we  did,  the  response  might  run,  "  From 
weakness  to  weakness,  from  failure  to  failure, 
from  humiliation  to  humiliation,"  or  even  it  might 
be  "  From  shame  to  shame."  How  wonderful 
appears  the  picture  of  St.  Paul,  who  describes 
the  believing  life  as  a  passage  "  from  glory  to 
glory"  !  In  the  epistle  where  these  words  occur 
the  Apostle  shows  himself  acutely  conscious  of 
life's  miseries,  privations,  and  agonies.  He  was 
then  suffering  from  troubles  whose  pressure  had 
almost  exhausted  his  strength.  He  describes 
himself  as  nameless,  poor,  sorrowful,  and  dying. 
He  understood  as  well  as  any  of  us  what  it  is  to 
feel  that  the  romance  of  life  has  faded,  that  the 
country  of  youth  has  been  left  behind,  that  there 
is  nothing  one  can  do  but  bewail  the  irrecoverable 


230  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

sweetness  of  the  past.  Yet  his  spirit  rises  un- 
subdued from  the  griefs  and  wrecks  of  time,  and 
he  speaks  as  one  of  the  great  company  who, 
**  beholding  as  in  a  glass  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
are  changed  into  the  same  image  from  glory  to 
glory,  even  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord."  For 
let  it  be  noted  that  he  was  not  speaking  of  himself 
alone.  Else  we  might  have  said,  "  This  may  be 
true  for  such  an  one  as  St.  Paul,  advancing 
through  all  those  years  without  one  backward 
look  or  one  yielding  thought.  But  how  can  it  be 
true  of  us  who  are  so  weary  of  the  incessant 
struggle,  and  whose  hopes  cannot  rise  from  un- 
looked-for and  merciless  strokes  ?  "  The  answer 
is  that  to  those  who  see  truly  the  course  of  every 
redeemed  life  moves  forward  to  its  perfect  con- 
summation. 

In  the  first  place  St.  Paul  affirms  that  life  to 
the  believer  is  a  glory.  The  whole  current  of 
modern  thought  runs  against  this  estimate.  At 
most  it  may  be  admitted  that  life  in  certain 
conditions  is  a  more  or  less  happy  delusion. 
Even  so  much  as  this  will  scarcely  be  granted  in 
these  years  of  the  dying  century,  when  pessimism 
is  eating  out  the  very  heart  of  our  literature  and 
is   gradually   taking   possession    of    the    general 


FROM  GLORY  TO  GLORY  231 

mind.  How  far  we  have  travelled  in  the  days 
between  Charles  Dickens  and  Thomas  Hardy ! 
One  may  say  without  irreverence  and  with  perfect 
truth  that  to  Dickens  the  Blessed  Trinity  was 
practically  identical  with  an  omnipotent  firm  of 
Cheeryble  Brothers.  To  him  the  administration 
of  the  universe  was  benevolent,  benevolent  in  the 
sentimental  fashion  of  "A  Christmas  Carol." 
Mr.  Hardy's  whole  philosophy  and  religion  arc 
summed  up  in  the  infinitely  bitter  words,  "  The 
President  of  the  Immortals  had  finished  his  sport 
with  Tess."  Open  as  "Jude  the  Obscure"  is  to 
many  criticisms,  we  cannot  agree  with  those  who 
take  it  simply  as  an  attack  on  marriage.  It  is 
much  rather  an  effort  to  show  that  the  universe 
and  mankind  are  deliberately  organised  for  miser3\ 
Let  human  beings  do  what  they  will,  let  them 
marry  or  abstain  from  marriage,  and  they  will 
still  be  wretched.  The  loftier  the  ideals  that  rise 
before  them,  the  more  ardently  they  endeavour  to 
pursue  them,  the  more  absolute  will  their  failure 
be  and  their  consequent  agony.  We  need  not 
wonder  at  this.  It  is  nothing  but  what  must 
happen  as  the  world  breaks  loose  from  God. 
Unless  life  is  divine  with  the  love  of  Christ,  it 
must    be    sunless.     St.    Paul    was     profoundly 


232  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

sensible  of  the  sin  and  the  misery  of  mankind. 
After  nearly  two  thousand  years  more  of  sorrow- 
ful human  history,  no  fact  or  experience  has  come 
to  light  that  would  have  taken  the  Apostle  by 
surprise.  But  to  him  the  vastness  of  sin,  the 
vastness  of  pain,  were  not  the  first  and  over- 
powering facts.  He  knew  that  which  was  greater 
than  them  all.  He  was  lost  in  the  immensities  of 
the  love  of  Christ,  the  love  that  signified  its 
strength  on  Calvary,  the  love  whose  length  and 
breadth  and  depth  and  height  far  transcended 
knowledge.  Life  to  St.  Paul  was  a  glory  because 
it  had  been  redeemed  by  the  precious  blood,  and 
was  wrapt  round  by  the  divine  charity.  True,  its 
inexorable  facts  remain.  But  they  are  wholly 
transfigured.  For  the  veil  has  been  undone  for 
ever,  and  with  open  face  we  behold  Christ.  On 
our  poor  house  the  rains  may  descend  and  the 
winds  blow,  but  it  may  be  nevertheless  the  palace 
of  the  great  King.  Life  may  go  out  wretchedly 
and  solitarily,  in  a  garret,  in  a  workhouse,  and 
yet  to  the  eye  of  faith  the  promise  of  Christ  may 
be  kept,  *'  I  will  come  again  and  receive  you  unto 
myself." 

More  difficult  even  for  Christians  is  the  next 
thought,  that  life  is  a  growing  glory.     After  a 


FROM  GLORY  TO  GLORY  233 

certain  period,  we  come  to  shrink  from  change, 
and  yet,  as  has  often  been  said,  Christianity 
welcomes  change.  It  takes  "  new "  for  one  of 
its  favourite  words.  It  keeps  speaking  of  a  new 
covenant,  new  creatures,  a  new  name,  and  new 
heavens.  It  encourages  us  to  go  forward,  to 
grow  tired  of  poor  conditions,  and  to  press  against 
hmits.  Instead  of  fearing  a  change  in  our  circum- 
stances, we  should  rather  welcome  it.  But  some — 
perhaps  not  many — of  those  who  read  these  lines 
will  keep  thinking  that  a  change  has  come  over 
themselves,  a  change  which  they  fear,  and  which 
they  can  hardly  understand.  It  may  be  that  this 
is  the  result — it  is  so  most  frequently — of  some 
blow  struck  straight  and  deep  at  the  roots  of 
happiness. 

We  no  longer  hear  much  about  the  doctrine 
of  transmigration,  the  doctrine  which  was  Henry 
M ore's  golden  key  to  the  mystery  of  the  universe. 
Perhaps  we  can  hardly  follow  the  arguments  by 
which  it  is  supported.  But  when  an  appeal  is 
made  to  the  latent  elements  that  underlie  our 
present  consciousness,  and  when  it  is  maintained 
that  there  is  a  hidden  world  in  which  the  subter- 
ranean river  of  personality  flows,  it  is  not 
diflicult  after  certain  experiences  to  understand 


234  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

what  is  meant.  For  does  it  not  seem  sometimes 
as  if  a  new  spirit  had  taken  possession  of  the 
existing  body,  when  the  true  soul  has  departed  ? 
Many  people  live  until  they  die,  but  many  people 
do  not.  In  Mrs.  Oliphant's  powerful  novel 
"  Agnes,"  there  is  the  most  vivid  expression  ot 
this  fact  that  we  know  of  in  literature.  The 
vitality  that  survives  so  much  is  at  last  mastered 
and  disappears.  Illness  does  not  come,  death 
does  not  come,  duties  continue  to  present  them- 
selves and  are  laboriously  discharged.  But  life, 
so  far  as  it  is  a  matter  of  personal  desire, 
satisfaction,  and  actual  being,  has  ceased  and 
stopped  short.  The  sufferers  feel  that  they  have 
had  their  day,  and  yet  much  may  remain  of  the 
hard  tale  of  years  which  God  sometimes  exacts 
to  the  last  moment  from  those  of  His  creatures  to 
whom  He  has  given  strength  to  endure.  The 
new  spirit  that  inhabits  the  form  may  be  angel 
or  demon,  or  it  may  be  a  most  human  spirit,  but 
it  is  a  substitute  even  though  no  one  may  be 
aware  of  the  substitution.  The  life  it  was 
pleasure  to  possess  and  happiness  to  continue 
has  been  broken  short  off  and  has  come  to  an  end. 
What  are  we  to  say  in  the  face  of  facts  like 
these  ?     How  can  it  be  that  such  transmutations 


FROM  GLORY  TO  GLORY  235 

ai-e  a  passage  from  glory  to  glory  ?  For  answer 
we  may  reply  that  time  must  do  its  work. 
"How  deep  and  awful,"  says  one,  "are  the 
wounds  that  time  and  truth  can  heal !  "  How 
often  wild,  dark  sorrows  show  themselves  at  last 
the  fair,  enlightened  work  of  God.  The  heart 
may  be  wondrously  revived  and  quieted,  and  a 
new  happiness  may  link  itself  with  the  old.  But 
this  cannot  always  be.  St.  Paul  himself  spoke 
not  much  of  what  lay  before  him  in  his  earthly 
course.  He  earnestly  desired  to  be  clothed  upon 
with  his  house  from  heaven.  Then  we  must  say 
that  in  God  is  the  continuous  thread  of  all  our 
years.  Then  we  must  boldly  rest  in  the  faith 
that  there  is  a  life  in  God  which  furnishes  its 
own  health,  its  own  wealth,  its  own  good.  The 
whole  discipline  of  Providence  is  bent  towards 
our  securing  and  perfecting  that  secret  immortal 
life.  It  may  seem  as  if  the  heart  were  rifled 
and  broken  by  the  harshnesses  and  the  amaze- 
ments of  its  way.  But  if  it  clings  to  God,  if  it 
seeks  to  be  wrapt  round  in  the  Eternal  Love,  the 
consciousness  will  come  at  last  that  the  redeemed 
life  is  a  unity,  a  glory,  a  growth,  and  that  this 
is  the  will  of  God,  even  our  sanctification. 

And  once  more  St.  Paul  teaches   us  that   this 


236  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

growing  glory  of  life  will  soon  and  for  ever  be 
perfected.  No  matter  what  ruins  we  have  left 
behind  us,  the  towers  of  the  New  Jerusalem 
flash  up  in  the  unsearchable  light.  The  white 
radiance  of  eternity  is  before  us,  stained  no  more 
by  time.  In  the  epistle  from  which  our  motto 
is  taken  St.  Paul  describes  suffering  in  every 
form.  But  suffering  is  after  all  for  the  moment, 
and  love  is  everlasting.  We  may  look  at  the 
past  and  the  future,  and  the  worst  they  hold, 
in  peace.  He  will  swallow  up  these  deaths  in 
victory,  be  sure.  We  shall  stand  at  the  well- 
head of  living  waters  and  thirst  no  more.  The 
bright  thread  of  love  holds  together  and  illumi- 
nates all  experience,  and  we  rejoice  in  the 
unswerving  hope  of  the  glory  of  God. 

And  hope  maketh  not  ashamed,  because  the 
love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  who  is  given  unto  us. 


GIVERS  AND  RECEIVERS 

''  I  'HAT  humanity  may  be  parted  easily  into  the 
'■  two  classes  of  givers  and  receivers  is  a  fact 
which  is  written  plainly  on  the  very  face  of  life. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  fair  exchange.  The 
broad  truth  about  some  is  that  their  lives  have 
been  spent  in  loving  and  imparting ;  the  broad 
truth  about  others  is  that  they  have  throughout 
coveted  and  received.  Take,  for  example,  the 
fortunes  of  love.  Does  it  not  seem  as  if  the  most 
royal  faculty  of  the  soul  were  often  the  most  dis- 
ordered and  vagrant  ?  How  much  love  runs  to 
waste,  meets  with  no  answer,  is  bestowed  fool- 
ishly, madly  !  To  the  most  loving  the  world  is 
often  loveless,  and  they  are  forced  to  think  that 
they  have  nothing  to  draw  with,  and  the  well  is 
deep.  Even  when  there  is  a  response,  it  is 
meagre  and  unsatisfying.  Sydney  Dobell,  in  his 
poem,  "  The   Captain's  Wife,"   tells   suggestively 


238  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

the  story  of  an  affection  returned  and  yet   not 
returned. 

"  Yet  there  is  something  here  within  this  breast, 
Which,  like  a  flower  that  never  blossoms,  lieth. 
And  though  in  words  and  tears  my  sorrow  crieth, 
I  know  that  it  hath  never  been  expressed. 
Something  that  blindly  yearneth  to  be  known, 
And  doth  not  burn,  nor  rage,  nor  leap,  nor  dart ; 
But  struggles  in  the  sickness  of  my  heart 
As  a  root  struggles  in  a  vault  of  stone." 

For  multitudes  of  men  and  women  the  chief 
bitterness  of  bereavement  is  the  remorse  for  mis- 
prizing the  treasure  of  a  heart.  Only  when  death 
has  snapped  the  bond  do  they  understand  that 
what  they  miss  and  must  miss  all  the  days  is  the 
touch,  the  breath,  the  tread  of  love. 

The  same  is  true  of  impulse  and  service.  The 
palmary  instance  for  Christians  is  that  of  the 
Apostle  and  High  Priest  of  our  profession.  It  is 
true  that  Our  Lord  came  to  confront  the  empire 
of  evil.  He  did  not  shrink  from  the  shock  of 
battle,  but  He  came  loving  and  seeking  love. 
"  He  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister,  and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many." 
If  there  had  been  given  to  Him  no  vision  of  a 
harvest  in  the  far  future,  might  He  not  have 
looked  upon  the  travail  of   His    soul   as   vain  ? 


GIVERS  AND  RECEIVERS  239 

What  was  true  of  the  Master  is  true  of  the  dis- 
ciples. It  was  true  for  St.  Paul,  it  is  true  sooner 
or  later  for  every  faithful  minister.  No  life  of 
Christian  service  but  is  to  be  known  by  the  mark 
of  the  nails.  One  of  the  most  successful  and 
beloved  of  modern  preachers  wrote :  "I  have 
much  observed  of  late  how  the  afternoon  of  life 
seems  to  lose  part  of  its  natural,  well-deserved 
recompense.  I  know  and  have  heard  of  a  good 
many  personal  experiences  of  this  kind  both  in 
Church  and  State.  The  real  spirit  and  character 
of  the  persons  affected  are  brought  out  by  such 
trials."  In  the  sphere  of  public  life  no  tmth  im- 
presses itself  more  deeply  on  the  close  observer 
than  this.  The  reader  of  Mr.  Morley's  often 
finely  felt  pieces  on  political  leaders  must  be 
familiar  with  the  French  saying,  which  comes  in 
so  often  as  a  gloomy  refrain  :  "In  order  to  love 
mankind  one  must  expect  little  from  them." 
Early  in  life  Burke  warned  a  young  man  enter- 
ing public  life  to  regard  and  see  well  to  the 
common  people,  whom  his  best  instincts  and  his 
highest  duties  led  him  to  love  and  to  serve,  but 
to  put  as  little  trust  in  them  as  in  princes.  The 
same  statesman  elsewhere  describes  an  honest 
public    life    as     carrying    on    a    poor,    unequal 


240  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

conflict  against  the  passions  and  prejudices  of 
our  day,  perhaps  with  no  better  weapons  than 
passions  and  prejudices  of  our  own.  How  rarely 
does  a  great  leader  witness  the  final  triumph  of 
the  cause  to  which  he  has  given  his  life  !  Even 
if  many  years  are  granted  him,  and  he  attains  the 
glory  of  a  feeble  victory,  in  the  height  of  the  sun- 
shine the  shadow  is  rapidly  stealing  on.  The 
scene  often  undergoes  a  strange  transformation, 
final  for  this  life.  By  the  time  the  splendid 
career  is  closed,  men  have  forgotten  it  in  the 
worship  of  other  luminaries. 

There  is  something  difficult  and  strange  about 
all  this.  It  would  be  far  more  difficult  if  it  were 
not  that,  after  all,  the  givers  and  not  the  receivers 
are  the  blessed.  Our  Lord,  the  great  Giver,  left 
His  witness  to  this.  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive."  Men,  in  spite  of  themselves, 
are  compelled  in  their  secret  souls  to  admit  that 
His  judgment  was  right,  only  they  will  not  act 
upon  it.  The  great  ambition  of  life  for  the  vast 
majority  is  to  receive.  They  give  grudgingly, 
they  accept  eagerly;  and  they  fancy  that  the 
more  they  possess  the  more  joyous,  peaceful, 
secure  their  life  will  be.  Yet  who  does  not  know 
that  to  bear  all  things,  to  believe  all  things,  to 


GIVERS  AND  RECEIVERS  241 

hope  all  things,  to  meet  every  defeat  and  refusal 
with  an  unfailing  and  Christlike  sweetness,  is 
the  true  path  of  peace  ?  Who  does  not  know 
that  there  is  something  better  than  possession  ? 

"  The  strength  and  the  loving  to  gaze  on  each  thing 
That  they  have  not,  with  joy  in  its  beauty,  and  sing, 
To  some  He  hath  given." 

Upon  these,  as  the  beautiful  German  saying  has 
it,  the  sun  smiles,  while  it  only  shines  upon  others. 
They  who  love,  and  they  only,  live  the  true  life 
of  humanity.  Better  to  be  the  loving  mother 
than  the  unloving  son.  Demas  forsook  Paul 
because  he  loved  this  present  world,  but  St.  Paul, 
passing  through  the  chequered  scenes  of  a  career 
full  of  triumph  and  of  failure,  missing  love  where 
he  loved  abundantly,  and  dying  in  poverty  and 
solitude,  was  happier  than  Demas  in  Thessalonica, 
whatever  his  possessions  were.  Even  men  of  the 
world  know  this  to  be  true  in  every  hour  that 
holds  the  soul  above  itself. 

For  the  givers  receive  the  best.  What  is  denied 
by  their  fellows  is  bestowed  by  God,  or  rather 
God  has  provided  some  better  thing  for  them. 
If  the  horizon  were  closed  by  the  world  of  sense 
and  time,  it  might  seem  as  if  the  receivers  had  the 
best  of  it,  but  the  homely  saying  holds — "  It  was 


242  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

never  yet  loving  that  emptied  the  heart,  nor  giving 
that  emptied  the  purse."  Why  ?  Because  there 
is  a  miraculous  divine  supply,  which  counteracts 
and  reverses  the  forces  that  might  impoverish  and 
drain.  We  cannot  give,  it  is  obvious,  without 
first  of  all  receiving.  The  givers  have  the  richest 
hearts  to  begin  with  ;  the  more  they  give,  the 
richer  their  hearts  grow,  the  sweeter  and  fuller  is 
their  life.  They  pass  from  duty  to  duty,  from 
experience  to  experience,  living  heartily  in  them 
all,  bearing  everywhere  a  sweet  savour  of  Christ, 
with  an  influence  pervasive  in  proportion  as  they 
have  grace  to  pass  through  worldly  solicitations 
unaltered  and  unbeguiled. 

How  does  Christ  give  to  and  bless  His  givers  ? 
Not  so  much  by  the  permanent  alteration  of  their 
circumstances,  though  He  sometimes  memorabl}^ 
blesses  even  in  outward  ways  those  who  keep  an 
open  heart.  More  often,  however,  the  circum- 
stances remain,  and  Christ's  gift  is  victory  over 
them.  The  ultimate  promise  stands,  "  Verily 
thou  shalt  be  fed."  To  this  there  is  oftentimes 
no  addition,  because  no  addition  is  needed.  It 
is  still  as  it  was  in  Our  Lord's  time.  Those  who 
have  the  royal  heart  are  never  left  without  the 
means  of  giving,  never  left  unhappy.     "  He  said 


GIVERS  AND  RECEIVERS  243 

unto  them,  When  I  sent  you  forth  without  purse, 
and  scrip,  and  shoes,  lacked  ye  anything?  And 
they  said.  Nothing."  It  is  a  hopeful  sign  of 
reaction  against  the  hungry  materialism  of  the 
times  that  so  many  Christian  people  are  turning 
their  thoughts  to  the  inner,  present,  spiritual 
blessings,  that  lift  us  above  circumstance,  that 
may  be  ours  for  the  asking,  that  are  bestowed 
instantly,  in  their  beginnings  at  least,  and  that 
lift  the  soul  into  the  royalty  of  inward  happiness. 
We  cannot  live  and  be  blessed  as  we  are.  There 
the  givers  and  receivers  agree.  But  for  the 
receivers  the  blessing  is  found  in  the  outward, 
for  the  givers  the  true  riches  are  an  inward 
possession.  "  Be  not  drunk  with  wine  wherein  is 
excess,  but  be  filled  with  the  Spirit  "  wherein  there 
is  no  excess.  The  condemnation  of  the  outward  is 
in  this,  that  it  ever  tends  towards  excess.  The 
craving  is  increased  by  that  which  feeds  it,  the 
stimulations  that  thrill  the  heart  for  a  moment 
need  to  be  made  stronger,  and  the  reaction  steadily 
becomes  swifter  and  more  complete.  But  the 
gift  of  the  Spirit,  which  raises  us  above  time  and 
nature,  brings  enduring  strength  and  peace,  and 
can  never  be  sought  or  bestowed  in  over-measure. 
It   will   be   poured   into   the   open    thirsty  heart, 


244  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

filling  it  with  unstinted  joy  and  love  and  energy, 
putting  within  our  reach  all  the  resources  of  God, 
making  us  rich  to  enrich  the  world.  Time  and 
circumstance,  sorrow  and  impoverishment — over 
these  we  may  be  more  than  conquerors. 

"  One  eve,  'mid  autumns  far  away, 
I  walked  alone  beside  a  river  ;  grey 
And  pale  was  earth,  the  heavens  were  grey  and  pale, 
As  if  the  dying  year  and  dying  day 
Sobbed  out  their  lives  together,  wreaths  of  mist 
Stole  down  the  hills  to  shroud  them  while  they  kissed 
Each  other  sadly  ;  yet  behind  this  veil 
Of  dreariness  and  decay  my  soul  did  build. 
To  music  of  its  own,  a  temple  filled 
With  worshippers  beloved  that  hither  drew 
In  silence ;  then  I  thirsted  not  to  hear 
The  voice  of  any  friend,  nor  wished  for  dear 
Companion's  hand  firm  clasped  in  mine ;  I  knew. 
Had  such  been  with  me,  they  had  been  less  near." 


CHRIST  WAITING  TO  BE  GRACIOUS 

A  MONG  the  Logia  or  professed  Sayings  of 
•^  *■  Our  Lord  recently  found  in  an  early  Greek 
papyrus,  none  has  excited  more  perplexity  than 
the  fifth.  It  begins  with  a  reminiscence  of  the 
great  words  which  have  been  called  the  true 
charter  of  the  Church — "  Where  two  or  three  are 
gathered  together  in  my  name,  there  am  I  in  the 
midst  of  them."  It  goes  on,  "  Raise  the  stone,  and 
there  thou  shalt  find  me ;  cleave  the  wood,  and 
there  am  I."  We  do  not  accept  the  addition  as  a 
saying  of  Christ,  but  it  is  at  the  least  a  comment 
of  high  interest.  Any  satisfactory  interpretation 
must  read  it  in  the  light  of  what  precedes  it,  and 
show  it  as  exegetical  or  explanatory  of  that.  For 
this  reason  various  interpretations  that  have 
found  currency  are  out  of  court.  Let  us  try 
whether  it  is. possible  to  weave  the  passages  into 
one.  Whether  our  interpretation  is  right  or  not, 
the  truths  which  underlie  it  are  of  unending 
significance  and  worth. 


246  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

We  read  the  passage  as  a  whole  as  meaning 
in  the  first  place,  that  Christ  waits  to  be  gracious. 
When  His  people  go  to  gather  together  in  His 
name,  they  find  that  He  is  already  there.  He 
welcomes  with  a  smile  the  first  worshippers.  He 
has  prevented  them  with  the  blessings  of  His 
goodness.  It  is  not  as  in  the  days  after  His 
resurrection  when  the  disciples  were  within,  and 
the  door  was  shut,  and  Jesus  came  through  and 
stood  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  said,  '*  Peace  be 
unto  you."  Many  of  our  readers,  we  are  sure, 
count  as  among  the  highest  and  most  luminous 
hours  of  life  the  little  praj'er-meetings  they  have 
attended  in  humble  places,  in  kitchens  and  barns. 
It  all  comes  before  them  so  vividly  that  they  are 
tempted  to  think  that  no  experiences  have  been 
graven  so  deep  as  these.  They  recall  the  walk 
to  the  meeting-place,  perhaps  on  a  moonlit  night 
of  snow,  the  long  shadows,  the  "holier  day,"  the 
hopeful  loneliness,  the  sense  that  they  were  on 
the  road  to  Christ,  to  a  full  manifestation  of  His 
presence.  Thus  we  come  to  the  low  doorway 
through  which  love,  and  grief,  and  patience,  and 
hope  approach  Him,  and  enter  the  little  room 
where  we  mark  His  blest  abode,  and  into  glory 
peep.      The   little   company   of    grave,    subdued 


CHRIST  WAITING  TO  BE  GRACIOUS         247 

worshippers  gradually  take  their  places,  and  one 
is  aware  of  the  deep  still  current  of  thought 
flowing  towards -the  present  Christ,  the  growing 
sense  of  His  mastery  over  us,  of  His  awful 
righteousness,  and  of  Mis  more  awful  love. 
Clouds  are  there,  and  tliey  may  be  very  heavy. 
There  are  sad  thoughts — thoughts  of  the  lapses 
of  a  stained  life,  of  sorrows  so  black  that  scarcely 
a  pale  beam  shines  through  them,  of  bereave- 
ments that  have  left  life  cold  and  dark  as  the 
later  hours  of  a  winter  day.  It  may  even  be  that 
the  very  faculty  of  emotion  fails  and  sinks  under 
the  subduing  weight  of  depression  and  care.  But 
it  is  amidst  these  clouds  that  the  Heavenly  Star 
arises.  We  feel  in  a  little  that  we  have  come 
into  the  presence  of  the  personal  Christ,  that  we 
are  looking  in  His  face,  that  we  hear  His  voice 
and  feel  His  heart  beating.  He  has  not  cast 
away  His  people  whom  He  foreknew.  Gradually 
there  rises  the  strong  tide  of  "joy  for  pardoned 
guilt,"  gradually  we  pass  into  a  deeper  compliance 
with  His  will.  We  realise  the  worth  of  what  we 
rebelled  against  in  the  days  of  our  darker  ignor- 
ance, and  at  last,  as  Christ  is  preached  in  a 
mystery,  the  heart  leaps  up  from  the  past  pain 
like   a   bird    from    its   nest,    and    the    brooding 


248  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

sadness  fades  from  the  face.  Then  is  our  mouth 
filled  with  laughter,  and  our  tongue  with  singing, 
and  long  ere  the  meeting  is  done  we  know  that 
new,  strong  cords  have  been  twisted  that  link 
His  life  with  ours. 

But  the  human  soul  never  speaks  more  truly 
than  when  it  says,  "  I  cannot  come  to  Him  un- 
less He  first  come  to  me."  He  always  comes 
first.  "  Raise  the  stone,  and  there  thou  shalt 
find  me;  cleave  the  wood,  and  there  am  I."  The 
deeper  thought  of  salvation  ever  stretches  back 
to  anchor  itself  in  the  uncaused  Love.  Redemp- 
tion is  not  an  afterthought,  but  an  eternal  thought. 
It  is  not  we  who  ascend  heaven  to  bring  Christ 
down  from  above,  it  is  He  who  comes  and  unites 
Himself  with  us.  God's  rich  mercy  is  long  kept, 
and  it  is  from  everlasting  to  everlasting.  The 
Redeemer  was  anointed  from  all  eternity  to  save 
the  yet  unborn  world.  "  Lo,  I  come,"  was  His 
word  of  quick  obedience  in  the  time  before  time 
was.  The  vitality  of  Calvinism  lies  in  its  assur- 
ance that  love  is  not  a  thing  that  began  yesterday 
and  may  end  to-morrow,  but  that  it  foreknew, 
and  fore-ordained,  and  will  ultimately  glorify. 
"Alpha  art  Thou  indeed,"  are  the  words  in  which 
one   of  the  deepest  students  of  these  mysteries 


CHRIST  WAITING  TO  BE  GRACIOUS  249 

closes  his  meditations.  Christ  is  Alpha  and 
Christ  is  Omega.  He  is  the  beginning  and  the 
end,  the  first  and  the  last. 

The  second  thought  is  that  His  people  may 
find  Christ  when  they  seek  Him  in  the  strangest 
places.  They  may  have  the  stone  to  raise  ;  they 
may  have  to  worship,  and  they  have  often  wor- 
shipped, in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth.  In  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  which  is  at  once  so 
passionate  and  so  calm,  the  writer's  voice  some- 
times breaks,  as  when  in  his  recital  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  saints,  "  They  wandered  about 
in  sheepskins  and  goatskins,  being  destitute, 
afflicted,  tormented,"  he  suddenly  pauses  to  say, 
"  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy."  But  the 
saints,  even  when  they  hide  from  an  hourly 
expected  vengeance,  and  know  by  every  testi- 
mony that  can  impress  man  that  their  cause  is 
lost,  meet  Christ  in  their  hiding-place,  and  hear 
Him  say,  "Be  of  good  cheer,  1  have  overcome 
the  world."  An  old  author  said,  when  his  chief 
friend  died,  "  The  theatre  of  all  my  actions  is 
fallen."  This  can  never  be  said  by  true  believers. 
The  theatre  of  their  actions  can  never  fall  when 
it  is  Christ,  and  He  is  never  so  near  as  when 
they  are  at  the  lowest  ebb  of  fortune,  and  even 


250  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

nigh  despair,  "  Raise  the  stone,  and  there  shalt 
thou  find  mc."  It  has  been  said  with  truth  about 
Coleridge  and  the  wonderful  reach  of  his  thoughts, 
"  Go  where  you  will,  to  the  loneliest  heights  or 
the  lowermost  parts  of  the  earth,  in  the  regions 
of  criticism  and  pure  speculation,  you  are  sure  to 
find  carved  on  the  rocks  the  initials  S.  T.  C." 
Christ's  people  find  in  the  loneliest  heights  and  in 
the  lowest  parts  of  the  earth  the  Real  Presence. 
Stones  are  to  them  consecrated  bits  of  the  old  earth, 
like  that  stone  of  Shechem  which  was  a  witness 
to  the  people  lest  they  denied  their  God. 

"  Cleave  the  wood,  and  there  am  I."  The  king- 
dom of  heaven  sometimes  suffers  violence  and  the 
violent  take  it  by  force.  They  may  have  forcibly 
to  break  through  closed  doors  to  find  a  place  of 
security  for  their  prayers.  Even  so  He  will  be 
there  before  them.  He  has  passed  through  the 
closed  door  like  a  spirit  invisible  to  mortal  eyes. 
Cleave  the  wood,  burst  open  the  door,  make  your 
way  to  me  by  any  means  or  to  any  place,  and  still 
there  am  I,  To  quote  Phillips  Brooks  :  "  In  the 
deepest  depths  to  which  he  can  go,  man  shall  still 
find  Christ  waiting,  and  hear  Christ  speak.  And 
out  of  the  heart  of  the  unknown  must  come  the 
Christ  he  knows  so  well,  saying,  '  I  am  here  too.'  " 


"WOMEN  RECEIVED  THEIR  DEAD" 

THAT  this  life  is  a  haunted  house  built  on  the 
very  confines  of  the  land  of  darkness  and 
the  shadow  of  death,  that  we  are  united  by  a 
thousand  fibres  with  the  other  world,  is  denied  by 
few.  The  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
in  his  undismayed  way  infinitely  extends  this 
truth  for  all  who  hold  his  faith.  We  are  come, 
said  he  (not  we  shall  come),  to  the  eternal  realities 
even  now.  For  at  this  very  moment  true 
believers  touch  angels  and  perfected  spirits,  and 
are  come  to  these  even  as  they  are  come  to  God 
and  to  the  blood  of  Jesus.  Now  amid  the  mists, 
the  sins,  the  shakings  of  mortality,  we  are  in  the 
midst  of  fairer  and  stabler  things.  For  we  are 
come  to  Zion,  exalted  above  the  mountains,  to 
draw,  like  a  loadstone,  all  tossing  hearts.  We 
are  now  verily  dwelling  in  the  temple  palace, 
which  is  the  home  of  the  Great  King.  We  have 
our  citi;^enship  in  the    new  Jerusalem,   which  is 


252  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

the  mother  of  us  all.  In  that  Jerusalem,  and  in 
its  mountain,  we  worship  the  Father.  We  need 
no  longer  utter  the  cry  of  homelessness,  and  envy 
the  sparrow  that  hath  found  a  house  and  the 
swallow  that  hath  built  a  nest  for  herself,  for  we, 
else  unsheltered,  have  reached  a  home  for  our- 
selves, even  the  altars  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 

But  faith  is  needed  for  the  constant  peaceful 
realisation  of  our  present  citizenship  above,  and 
because  faith  often  trembles,  because  the  veil 
which  in  our  best  moments  is  rent  asunder,  or 
thinned  at  least,  often  seems  to  hang  impene- 
trable over  what  we  would  fain  see,  God  has 
come  into  our  life,  and  deigned  to  give  the  proof 
of  what  faith  assures  us.  For  it  is  the  same 
writer  to  the  Hebrews  who  tells  us  that  women 
received  their  dead  raised  to  life  again,  or  rather 
women  received  their  dead  by  resurrection,  and 
he  remembers  one  other  at  least  who  received 
her  dead  in  a  belter  way.  He  recalls  Eleazar,  the 
heroic  mother,  and  her  seven  sons  mentioned 
in  the  second  book  of  Maccabees,  who  were 
stretched  on  the  wheel  and  beaten  to  death,  re- 
jecting the  deliverance  that  was  offered  to  them 
at  the  price  of  their  principles,  in  order  that  they 
might    obtain    a   better    i-esurrection    than    any 


'•WOMEN  RECEIVED  THEIR  DEAD"  253 

return  to  this  mortal  life.  The  King  of  the 
world  shall  raise  us  up,  they  said,  unto  everlast- 
ing life. 

Women  received  their  dead.  The  writer  is 
thinking  of  the  widow  of  Sarepta  and  of  the 
Shunammite.  He  recalls  how  one,  after  many 
days  when  the  barrel  of  meal  wasted  not,  neither 
did  the  cruse  of  oil  fail,  lost  her  son,  and  felt  that 
famine  would  have  been  better  than  the  heavenly 
miracle.  He  recalls  how  the  prophet  stretched 
himself  on  the  child,  and  the  Lord  hearkened, 
and  the  soul  of  the  child  came  into  him  again, 
and  he  revived,  and  Elijah  delivered  him  to  his 
mother.  He  remembers  the  little  lad  who  said 
to  his  father,  "  My  head,  my  head,"  who  was 
carried  to  his  mother  and  sat  on  her  knees  till 
noon,  and  then  died.  He  remembers  how  the 
child's  body  lay  on  the  bed  of  the  man  of  God 
through  the  slow  torturing  hours  till  his  flesh 
waxed  warm,  and  he  opened  his  eyes.  He 
remembers  how  Elisha  called  the  Shunammite 
and  said,  "  Take  up  thy  son,"  and  how  ere  she 
did,  she  fell  at  his  feet  and  bowed  herself  to  the 
ground.  And  can  it  be  so  ?  Did  love  verily 
melt  the  iron  rim  of  fate  that  surrounds  this 
weeping  'world  of  change  ?     Yes,  for  when  our 


254  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

Lord,  "with  woman's  blood  in  Him,"  appeared 
in  the  flesh,  He,  too,  had  compassion  even  as 
His  prophets  before  Him,  and  delivered  her  son 
to  the  widow  of  Nain  and  Lazarus  to  his  sisters. 
The  beginning  at  Sarepta  and  Shunem  was  the 
dusky  dimness  just  broken  by  these  shafts  of 
light.  When  Christ  came  the  solemn  day  was 
breaking,  and  yet  the  full  light  was  far  off. 

JVonien  received  their  dead.  The  writer  does 
not  say  men,  although  it  is  true  that  Jairus  re- 
ceived his  daughter.  But  what  could  pass  the 
love  of  women  ?  The  power  to  live  in  others, 
which  is  their  gracious  prerogative  and  happiest 
attribute,  is  also  their  keenest  agony.  It  is 
woman  that  suffers  the  most,  although  her  feel- 
ing may  be  better  hidden  at  first  than  man's. 
We  may  not  see  so  obviously  in  her  case  the 
violence  and  the  much  bleeding  that  come  with 
sorrow,  but  it  is  woman  who  tries  to  arrest  the 
inevitable  doom,  who  would  detain  the  soul  so 
swiftly  passing,  who  counts  in  awful  agonised 
moments  every  beat  of  the  pendulum,  who  says 
even  when  long  years  have  passed,  and  when  a 
happiness  comes  again,  "  Oh,  is  there  anything 
in  heaven  or  in  earth  that  can  make  amends  for 
the  despair  of  these  hours  ?  "     Despair  has  been 


"  WOMEN  RECEIVED  THEIR  DEAD"  255 

SO  Utter,  so  awful,  so  God-compelling,  that  it 
rolled  back  the  very  gates  of  death. 

But  why  are  they  now  closed  ?  Mothers  have 
suffered  every  day  pangs  as  terrible  as  tore  the 
hearts  of  the  woman  of  Shunem  and  the  widows 
of  Sarepta  and  Nain,  and  yet  the  dead  remain. 
Was  it  for  nothing,  then,  that  these  miracles 
were  done  ?  No,  they  give  us  perhaps  our 
most  enlarged  measure  of  the  everlasting  tender- 
ness. No  tenderness  was  ever  done  by  God, 
could  ever  be  imagined  by  man,  more  grateful 
than  this — the  restoration  of  a  child  to  his 
mother.  It  tells  how  well  He  keeps  them,  for 
though  they  had  taken  that  far,  swift  journey 
they  soon  came  back,  the  Hush  of  health  mantling 
in  their  cheeks.  What  God  did  for  these  mothers 
He  would  do  for  every  mother  if  only  it  was 
best. 

And  is  it  best  ?  Is  it  what  mothers  in  their 
very  hearts  desire,  to  receive  their  dead  again  ? 
The  dead  whom  they  have  watched,  "  patient  as 
a  midnight  lamp,"  on  whom  the}^  have  lavished 
inexpressible  love  and  tenderness,  would  they 
have  them  back  ?  The  honours  of  the  returning 
dead  were  dear  bought,  for  all  had  to  come  again 
— the  pain,  the  sickness,  the  sorrow,  the  death. 


256  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

They  died  twice,  and  it  is  more  merciful  that  we 
should  die  once.  One  can  hardly  believe  that 
these  restored  children  erred  from  the  path,  but 
doubtless  they  sinned  and  suffered  like  others. 
Do  we  not  say  as  our  eyes  grow  clearer,  How 
excellent  are  the  redeemed  !  how  blessed  are  the 
unblemished  children  of  life  !  how  fair  are  they  in 
the  "  moonlight  of  eternal  peace,  solemn  and  very 
sweet ! "  A  greater  hope,  even  the  hope  of  a 
better  resurrection,  enters  strangely  through  the 
rents  and  fissures  of  the  broken  heart,  till  mothers 
are  able  to  say  quietly,  even  thankfully,  **  I  shall 
go  to  him,  but  he  shall  not  return  to  me." 

We  pass  from  this  little  ring  of  victorious 
mothers  to  the  great  company  of  those  who  have 
had  to  make  peace  with  death.  Women  received 
their  dead.  Do  we  remember  that  women  in 
heaven  are  always  receiving  their  dead  ?  They 
are  expecting  them,  and  they  are  welcoming 
them.  The  happiness  of  the  blessed  is  buoyant 
and  elastic,  not  passionless,  dreamless,  change- 
less. There  is  a  Sabbath-keeping  for  the  people 
of  God,  but  the  Sabbath  is  a  high  day  and  a 
holiday.  The  mind  does  not  eddy  quietly  round 
and  round  itself  instead  of  sweeping  onward. 
The  blessedness  is   being  evermore  broken  and 


"  WOMEN  RECEIVED  THEIR  DEAD  "  257 

heightened  by  fresh  joys  and  hopes,  and  surely 
the  sweetest  of  all  is  the  entrance  of  redeemed 
souls.  We  have  all  felt  when  some  died  that  it 
was  only  as  it  should  be,  that  they  were  more 
needed  in  the  other  world  even  than  they  could 
be  in  this,  that  some  heart  had  a  greater  claim 
upon  them,  and  could  not  be  content  without 
them,  and  it  has  seemed  as  if  their  welcome  must 
not  be  delayed  any  longer,  and  as  if  it  were  left 
to  us  simply  for  the  future  to  make  sure  that  we 
are  come  to  the  innumerable  company  of  angels, 
and  the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect.  The 
joys  of  the  angels  we  know  are  made  more 
poignant  and  keen  by  the  repentance  of  souls. 
The  joys  of  the  blessed  dead  are  immeasurably 
heightened  by  the  receiving  of  their  own. 
Nothing  can  seem  more  solitary  than  the  passage 
into  the  other  life,  and  yet  it  is  not  solitary.  "  I 
will  come  again  and  receive  you  unto  myself, 
that  where  I  am  ye  may  be  also."  That  is 
company,  and  other  company  is  waiting.  There 
are  "  the  shining,  shining  hosts  of  saints,  the 
angels'  burning  tiers,"  but  there  are  more  than 
these. 

Where  the  child  shall  greet  the  mother, 
And  the  mother  greet  the  child  ; 

R 


258  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

Where  dear  families  are  gathered, 
That  were  scattered  on  the  wild. 

And  so  in  the  full  sense  heaven  is  home. 

And  at  the  end,  whereof  the  dawn  of  Easter 
prophesies,  women  will  receive  their  dead  in 
another  fashion,  and  completely,  everlastingly. 
The  day  will  break  jubilant,  as  if  sorrow,  sighing, 
and  death  were  a  dream  of  the  night.  Tears,  and 
groans,  and  waitings,  and  sobs,  and  broken  hearts 
will  be  done  away  for  ever  as  the  scattered  tribes 
of  God  ascend  His  Holy  Hill.  It  has  been  well 
with  the  dead.  They  have  been  absent  from  the 
body,  but  present  with  their  Lord,  as  if  Christ 
robed  and  homed  them.  Yet  they  have  waited 
for  the  adoption,  to  wit,  the  redemption  of  the 
body,  and  at  last  it  has  fully  come.  They  behold 
one  another  as  they  once  did  here,  and  there  is 
to  be  no  more  separation.  The  reunion  of  that 
day  of  days,  its  resurrection,  is  better  than  any 
resurrection  to  earth,  than  any  brief  reunion  in 
this  world.  We  have  longed  to  receive  our  dead, 
to  roll  the  great  stone  away,  to  carry  captivity 
captive,  to  hear  again  the  words  that  of  old  bowed 
our  hearts.  We  have  imagined  that  a  future  in 
this  world  with  the  dead  restored  would  be  a 
future  from  which  all  sorrow  was  expelled.     But 


"  WOMEN  RECEIVED  THEIR  DEAD"  259 

it  could  not  be.  The  mother  will  say  when  she 
receives  the  Httle  one  that  has  been  so  long  in  the 
more  immediate  keeping  of  Christ  that  it  has 
been  well  with  the  child.  The  son  who  has 
desired  the  mother,  and  prayed  for  her  return, 
will  rejoice  that  her  rest  has  been  unstirred. 

Oh  rise,  and  sit  in  soft  attire  ! 
Wait  but  to  know  my  soul's  desire ! 
I'd  call  thee  back  to  earthly  days, 
To  cheer  thee  in  a  thousand  ways  ! 
Ask  but  this  heart  for  monument. 
And  mine  shall  be  a  large  content ! 

A  crown  of  brightest  stars  to  thee  ! 
How  did  thy  spirit  wait  for  me, 
And  nurse  thy  waning  light,  in  faith 
That  I  would  stand  'twixt  thee  and  death 
Then  tarry  on  thy  bowing  shore, 
Till  I  have  asked  thy  sorrows  o'er  ! 

Because  that  I  of  thee  was  part. 
Made  of  the  blood-drops  of  thy  heart ; 
My  birth  I  from  my  body  drew, 
And  I  upon  thy  bosom  grew  ; 
My  life  was  set  thy  life  upon  ; 
And  I  was  thine,  and  not  my  own. 

Because  I  know  there  is  not  one 
To  think  of  me  as  thou  hast  done, 
From  morn  till  starlight  year  by  year ; 
For  me  thy  smile  repaid  thy  tear  ; 
And  fears  for  me,  and  no  reproof, 
When  once  I  dared  to  stand  aloof ! 


26o  THE:  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

My  punishment,  that  I  was  far 
When  God  unloosed  thy  weary  star  ! 
My  name  was  in  thy  faintest  breath, 
And  I  was  in  thy  dream  of  death  ; 
And  well  I  know  what  raised  thy  head. 
When  came  the  mourner's  muffled  tread  ! 

It  is  better  to  rest  in  the  Day  of  Redemption, 
and  to  rejoice  in  that  Spirit  whereby  we  are 
sealed  unto  it  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of 
glory.  The  Good  Shepherd  when  He  spoke  of 
the  sheep  for  whom  He  laid  down  His  life,  and 
for  whom  He  took  it  again,  says,  "  I  know  my 
sheep,  and  am  known  of  mine."  And  in  Him  the 
long-lost  communion  is  renewed  and  the  long- 
sought  good  is  found.  In  the  resurrection  morn- 
ing each  of  His  people  says,  "  I  have  found  Him 
whom  my  soul  loveth — Him  and  them." 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  LITTLE  CHILDREN 

F7ROM  various  quarters  we  hear  at  present 
^  that  Httle  children  need  no  theology.  Mr. 
Birrell,  in  a  recent  speech,  went  as  far  as  to  say 
that  they  could  not  be  taught  theology,  and  that 
whatever  the  priests  might  do,  the  little  ones  were 
deaf  to  their  teaching.  Mr.  Birrell  is  a  minister's 
son,  and  to  such  as  he  occasional  sallies  into  the 
field  of  dogma  are  necessary,  no  matter  what  they 
have  kept  or  lost  of  their  first  faith.  Professor 
Bruce,  who  is  held  in  deserved  respect  as  a 
thoroughly  trained  theologian,  and  one  whose 
conclusions  are  in  the  main  those  of  the  catholic 
Church,  has  compiled  a  religious  catechism  for 
children  published  as  a  sequel  to  his  book, 
"  With  Open  Face."  In  this  he  asks  and  answers 
questions  about  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus.  He 
recognises  that  Christ  performed  miracles  of 
healing.  He  tells  the  children  that  they  should 
love  Christ  with  all  their  hearts  as  their  Saviour, 


262  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

and  worship  and  serve  Him  as  their  Lord.  But 
about  the  Resurrection  he  has  nothing  to  say, 
and  about  the  present  activity  of  Jesus  there  is 
only  one  question  and  answer — "  Where  is  Jesus 
now  ? — He  is  in  the  house  of  his  Father  in 
heaven,  where  He  is  preparing  a  place  for  all  who 
bear  His  name  and  walk  in  His  footsteps."  There 
the  catechism  ends.  A  book  of  religion  for 
children,  which  has  been  widely  circulated  and 
much  praised  by  orthodox  divines,  slurs  over  in  a 
few  sentences  the  Resurrection,  the  Ascension, 
and  the  eternal  reign.  And  there  is  a  section  of 
Nonconformists  at  present  who  think  the  problem 
of  religious  education  in  public  schools  might  be 
solved  by  confining  the  instruction  to  the  earthly 
life  of  Jesus.  It  is  obvious  to  remark  that  they 
would  be  confronted  at  once  with  the  question  of 
miracle.  But  our  purpose  at  present  is  rather  to 
show  that  little  children  are  from  the  first  taught 
ii  theology  which  is  deep  and  catholic,  taught  it  b}^ 
their  earliest  instructors,  and  taught  it  in  those 
hymns  whereby  God  stills  the  enemy  and  the 
avenger. 

Our  appeal  is  to  the  hymnals  which  have  been 
provided  in  all  sections  of  the  Church  for  the  use 
of  children.     For  convenience  sake  we  shall  use 


THE  THEOLOGY  OE  LITTLE  CHILDREN      263 

that  of  the  late  Dr.  W.  Fleming  Stevenson,  who 
was  a  man  of  great  catholicity  and  fine  literary 
taste. 

It  will  be  admitted  by  all  who  are  familiar  with 
the  movements  of  theology  during  the  last  fift}' 
years  that  the  deeper  current  has  been  running 
and  is  running  more  strongly  than  ever  towards 
faith  in  the  great  revealing  acts  of  God.  There  is 
a  Broad  Churchism  which  has  run  to  seed,  which 
is  practically  dead  in  the  Establishment,  and 
which  is  dying  everywhere  in  Dissent,  There  is 
another  Broad  Churchism  which  is  broad  in  the 
sense  that  it  has  insisted  on  the  hallowing  of 
all  life  by  the  Incarnation,  and  that  is  living 
and  growing.  When  "  Essays  and  Reviews " 
appeared,  many  blundering  people  could  see  no 
difference  between  their  teaching  and  that  of 
Maurice  and  his  immediate  disciples,  Maurice 
passionately  protested  against  the  association. 
He  refused  to  accept  the  name  of  Broad  Church- 
man, We  can  see  now  that  he  was  right.  He 
was  not  content  with  believing  vaguely  in  an 
inward  spiritual  relation  ;  he  knew  that  there 
must  be  a  saving  faith  in  the  divine  acts  by  which 
the  divine  light  has  an  external  as  well  as  an 
internal  manifestation.     It  is  by   these  acts,   b}' 


264  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

the  Incarnation,  the  Atonement,  and  the  Resur- 
rection of  our  Lord  that  we  get  our  one  true 
ghmpse  of  eternal  Being.  Now  we  take  our 
children's  hymnal,  and  everywhere  we  find  these 
great  acts  affirmed  and  interpreted.  The  earthly 
life  of  Jesus  is  everywhere  remembered  as  it 
should  be,  but  the  eternal  life  of  the  Father  and 
the  Son  which  existed  before  man  and  exists  now, 
is  held  to  give  these  words  and  works  all  their 
meaning.  Without  this  present  life  of  Jesus,  the 
past  life  would  mean  very  little.  It  would  be 
indeed  a  heroic  and  pathetic  memory,  but  it  could 
not  reinforce  us  in  our  need,  and  when  it  was 
considered  attentively,  it  might  seem  as  if  they 
had  much  to  say  for  themselves  who  regarded  it 
as  a  shattered  dream,  a  broken  song,  a  magnificent 
failure.  But  everywhere  the  hymns  teach  the 
holy  Incarnation.  Did  Jesus  gather  the  children 
about  Him  in  Palestine,  and  bless  them,  and 
lay  His  hands  on  their  hair?  He  can  do  the 
same  to-day. 

"  Thou  who  here  didst  prove 
To  babes  so  full  of  love, 
Thou  art  the  same  above, 
Merciful  Jesus." 

Did  He  once  still  the  raging  waters  of  the  lake  ? 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  LITTLE  CHILDREN      265 

"  O  well  we  know  it  was  the  Lord, 
Our  Saviour  and  our  Friend  ; 
Whose  care  of  those  who  trust  His  Word 
Will  never,  never  end." 

Do  children  wish  now  to  have  been  with  Christ  in 
the  days  of  His  flesh  when  He  called  the  little  ones 
as  lambs  to  His  fold  ?  They  will  be  with  Him 
yet,  and  not  only  may  they  have  the  same  blessing 
now,  but  they  will  have  it  to  the  very  fullest 
hereafter. 

"  In  the  beautiful  place  He  has  gone  to  prepare 
For  all  that  are  washed  and  forgiven  ; 
And  many  dear  children  are  gathering  there. 
For  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

Was  He  born  a  babe  in  the  manger?  His  birth 
was  proclaimed  by  the  angels. 

"  For  they  knew  that  the  child  on  Bethlehem's  Hill 
Was  Christ  the  Lord." 

Did  He  come  to  Sion  bringing  His  salvation  to 
the  children  who  praised  His  name  ? 

"  Since  the  Lord  retaineth 

His  love  for  children  still. 
Though  now  as  King  He  reigneth 

On  Sion's  heavenly  hill, 
Weil  flock  around  His  banner 

Who  sits  upon  the  throne, 
And  cry  the  loud  Hosannah 

To  David's  royal  Son." 


266  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

Are  children  taught  to  sing  the  m3^stery  of  His 
great  oblation  ?  Do  they  understand  the  Cross 
as  the  final  manifestation  of  divine  love  and  of 
human  need  ? 

"  Glory  be  to  Jesus, 
Who,  in  bitter  pains, 
Poured  for  me  the  Hfe  blood 
From  His  sacred  veins. 

Abel's  blood  for  vengeance 

Pleaded  to  the  skies  ; 
But  the  blood  of  Jesus 

For  our  pardon  cries." 

Can  children  be  taught  that  He  was  born  to  die, 
that  He  came  to  save  them  by  dying,  and  that 
now  He  pleads  for  them  a  Priest  for  ever  ? 

"  Oh  what  has  Jesus  done  for  me  ? 

He  pitied  me,  my  Saviour ; 
My  sins  were  great,  His  love  was  free, 

He  died  for  me,  my  Saviour. 
Exalted  by  the  Father's  side. 

He  pleads  for  me,  my  Saviour  ; 
A  heavenly  mansion  He'll  provide 

For  all  who  love  the  Saviour." 

Above  all,  if  we  may  say  so,  these  hymns  are 
saturated  with  the  thought  of  the  Resurrection 
and  the  eternal  reign.  He  was  the  King  of 
Glory  ere  He  came  to  seek  us.  He  is  the  King 
of  Glory  now  that    He    has    returned  from    the 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  LITTLE  CHILDREN      267 

wilderness.  It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  show 
the  pitiful  mutilations  and  omissions  to  which 
the  Unitarians  in  their  hymnal  for  children  are 
compelled  to  resort.  In  Reginald  Heber's  "  By 
cool  Siloam's  shady  rill,"  the  closing  verses 
are  : 

"  O  Thou  whose  infant  feet  were  found 
Within  Thy  Father's  shrine, 
Whose  years,  with  changeless  virtue  crowned. 
Were  all  alike  divine  ; 

Dependent  on  Thy  bounteous  breath, 

We  seek  Thy  grace  alone, 
In  childhood,  manhood,  age,  and  death, 

To  keep  us  still  thine  own  !  " 

In  the  Unitarian  hymnal  the  lines  read  : 

"  O  thou  whose  infant  feet  were  led 
Within  thy  Father's  shrine, 
Whose  years,  with  holiest  spirit  fed. 
Were  all  alike  divine  ; 

We  seek  that  spirit's  bounteous  breath, 

We  ask  his  grace  alone. 
In  childhood,  manhood,  age,  and  death, 

To  keep  us  still  thine  own." 

When  the  3'oung  gather  to  dedicate  themselves 
to  God  it  seems  as  if  they  could  not  but  lift  up 
their  eyes  to  the  Light,  the  Way,  the  Truth,  the 
Life. 


268  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

"O  Light,  O  Way,  O  Truth,  O  Life, 

O  Jesu,  born  mankind  to  save, 
Give  Thou  Thy  peace  in  deadliest  strife, 

Shed  Thou  Thy  calm  on  stormiest  wave  ; 
Be  Thou  our  Hope,  our  Joy,  our  Dread, 
Lord  of  the  living  and  the  dead." 

More  than  that,  one  of  the  most  noble  of 
children's  hymns  dares  to  touch  on  the  sub- 
duing mystery  of  a  child's  death,  and  its  far 
journey  to  the  new  home  : 

"  Little  travellers  Zionward, 

Each  one  entering  into  rest, 
In  the  Kingdom  of  your  Lord, 

In  the  mansions  of  the  blest ; 
There,  to  welcome,  Jesus  waits, 

Gives  the  crowns  His  followers  win. 
Lift  your  heads,  ye  golden  gates. 

Let  the  little  travellers  in." 

Now  these  great  Acts  of  God  when  applied 
in  their  practical  bearing  simply  mean  that 
Christ  is  close  to  the  very  fountains  of  the 
human  spirit,  that  we  can  pray  to  Him,  and 
that  we  ought  to  pray  to  Him.  The  Ritschlian 
teaching  passionately  denies  this.  We  have  no 
contact  with  Christ,  it  affirms,  save  through 
such  facts  as  remain  to  us  of  His  early  life. 
But  then  this  school  denies  His  incarnation, 
denies  His  atonement,  denies  His   resurrection, 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  LITTLE  CHILDREN      269 

and  denies  His  heavenly  reign.  We  are  always 
baffled  to  understand  how  orthodox  theologians 
can  discuss  their  differences  with  the  Ritschlians 
as  if  they  were  talking  of  nothing  more  im- 
portant than  the  conformation  of  a  beetle.  It 
is  no  wonder  that  such  men  should  revive 
the  view  that  Christ  is  a  moralist  speaking  with 
authority,  giving  an  example,  and  wielding  in 
some  way  the  power  of  judgment  and  punish- 
ment. They  view  the  Church  as  "a  virtue- 
making  institution,"  making  virtue  by  teaching 
what  Christ  did  and  said  in  Palestine.  The 
Church  is  indeed  a  virtue-making  institution,  but 
she  makes  virtue  by  directing  her  children  to 
the  accessible  and  ever-flowing  spiritual  spring 
and  source  of  virtue.  The  Church  teaches  the 
vital  and  organic  relation  of  all  believing  hearts 
with  Jesus  Christ  Himself  She  teaches  that 
into  the  secret  recesses  of  the  believing  heart 
Christ  pours  the  Divine  Spirit,  that  believers 
are  continually  fed  as  the  apostles  were  fed  by 
Christ  their  Life,  by  Christ  within  them,  by 
Christ  the  Inspirer  and  Enabler  of  all  good. 
Now  that  means  that  Christ  is  to  be  addressed 
in  prayer,  for  if  He  speaks  to  the  spirit  of  man 
directly,  surely  the  spirit  of  man  may  and  must 


270  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

speak  in  return  to  Him.  If  our  life  and  peace 
are  consciously  drawn  from  Christ,  we  must 
bless  Him  for  what  He  has  given  and  plead 
with  Him  to  give  us  more.  To  pray  to  Christ 
as  if  He  were  more  merciful  than  the  Father  is 
indeed  condemned  from  every  fact  of  the  divine 
revelation.  But  even  as  we  pray  to  the  Father,  so 
we  may  pray  to  the  Eternal  Son.  We  can  hold 
communion  as  direct  with  any  one  Person  of 
the  Blessed  Trinity  as  with  another.  Now  the 
peculiarity  of  children's  hymns  is  that  they  are 
almost  all  prayers  to  the  Lord  Jesus. 

"  Jesus,  tender  Shepherd,  hear  me  ; 
Bless  Thy  little  lamb  to-night." 

Is  that  prayer  answered  ?  Is  it  true  that  the 
Great  Shepherd  is  beside  His  lambs  when  they 
sleep  and  when  they  wake  ? 

"  Yet  still  to  His  footstool  in  prayer  I  may  go, 
And  ask  for  a  share  of  His  love." 

Is  that  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all 
acceptation  ? 

"  Holy  Jesus,  every  day 
Keep  us  in  the  narrow  way." 

Does  He  then  guide  the  feet  of  His  children 
home  ?     We  ask  for  no  theology  beyond  what 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  LITTLE  CHILDREN      271 

we  find  in  the  hymns  sung  by  httle  children, 
sung  with  the  understanding  as  well  as  with 
the  voice.  The  mysteries  of  God  are  spoken 
there  so  far  as  human  lips  may  speak  them. 
When  it  pleased  God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  Paul, 
He  was  revealed  not  only  as  the  Lord  of  Glory, 
but  as  the  very  life  of  his  life.  So  the  Apostle 
said  :  "  Though  we  have  known  Christ  after  the 
flesh,  yet  now  henceforth  know  we  Him  so  no 
more."  It  was  not  that  St.  Paul  disparaged  the 
historical  life  of  Jesus.  Every  word  and  every 
deed  kept  for  us  is  precious  beyond  price.  But 
the  meaning  would  pass  from  them  ;  they  would 
become  bleached,  and  faded,  and  outworn  if  we 
did  not  know  that  they  are  perpetual  signs  of  an 
activity  that  is  constant,  of  a  love  and  care  that 
never  cease,  so  that  they  are  all  transfigured  by 
the  glory  that  excelleth.  Let  every  mother  who 
reads  these  words  ask  what  religion  would  be  to 
her  if  she  were  told  that  she  must  no  more  teach 
her  children  to  pray  to  Jesus,  that  she  must  no 
more  teach  them  that  He  is  the  King  of  heaven, 
that  she  cannot  speak  to  them  of  His  present  life, 
but  only  of  His  past,  that  He  will  not  be  with 
them  in  the  long  journey  they  can  never  take 
with  her. 


THE   EVANGELICAL  LOVE   FOR  CHRIST 

IN  his  admirable  portrait  of  Coventry  Patmore, 
published  in  the  Contemporary  Review,  Mr. 
Gosse  tells  us  that  Patmore  prepared  a  book 
entitled  "  Sponsa  Dei."  It  was  a  mystical 
interpretation  of  the  love  between  the  soul 
and  God  by  an  analogy  of  the  love  between 
a  woman  and  a  man — in  fact,  a  transcendental 
treatise  on  divine  desire  seen  through  the  veil 
of  human  desire.  Mr.  Gosse  assures  us  that 
the  purity  and  crystalline  passion  of  the  writer 
carried  him  safely  over  the  most  astounding 
difficulties.  But  Mr.  Patmore  decided  to  burn 
it.  Perhaps  it  was  better  so.  His  theme,  how- 
ever, has  engaged  many  Christian  hearts,  and  it 
has  been  especially  expounded  in  mystical  in- 
terpretations of  the  Song  of  Songs.  We  have 
before  us  a  volume  entitled  "The  Most  Holy 
Place :    Sermons  on  the  Song  of  Solomon,"  by 

s 


274  T^E  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

Mr.  Spurgeon.*  Whatever  ground  there  be  for 
the  spiritual  interpretation  of  Canticles — and 
scholars  generally  reject  it— there  is  no  doubt 
that  we  have  in  this  volume  a  most  valuable 
contribution  to  Christian  literature.  The  Church 
does  not  yet  know  what  a  great  saint  and  doctor 
she  possessed  in  Mr.  Spurgeon.  If  religion  is  to 
be  derived  from  revelation,  and  if  theology  is  to 
be  kept  close  to  Christian  experience,  living  or 
dying  therewith,  then  we  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  Mr.  Spurgeon  was  not  a  whit  behind  the 
very  chiefest  of  theologians.  Of  course,  what 
little  criticism  there  is  in  the  book  is  of  small 
account,  and  it  does  not  profess  to  be  important. 
What  is  important  is  the  depth  of  Christian  know- 
ledge the  book  discloses,  and  we  have  no  hesitation 
in  saying  that  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  treatises 
on  the  love  of  Christ  to  His  people  and  on  His 
people's  love  to  Christ  that  the  Church  possesses, 
wonderful  alike  for  fertility  and  exquisite  delicacy 
of  thought.  The  writer  plays  with  the  images  of 
the  Canticles,  but  always  with  a  careful  reverence 
and  reserve.  "  I  am  the  rose  of  Sharon  and  the 
lily  of  the  valle}^,"  he  comments  upon  thus  :  "  Red 
as  the  rose  in  His  sacrifice,  white  as  the  lily  as 
*  Passmore  and  Alabaster. 


THE  EVANGELICAL  LOVE  FOR  CHRIST      275 

He  ascends  on  high  in  His  perfect  righteousness, 
clothed  in  His  white  robe  of  victory  to  receive 
gifts  for  men,"  and  the  volume  is  full  of  such 
beautiful  fancies,  though  what  is  at  the  heart 
of  it  is  not  fancy,  but  the  very  truth  of  truths. 
Mr.  Spurgeon  was  remarkable  beyond  most 
preachers  for  the  passion  and  intensity  of  his 
personal  love  for  Christ,  and  here  it  appears  in 
every  sentence.  He  was  not  like  Dr.  Newman, 
whose  Christian  creed  perhaps  did  not  vary 
much  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  and  was 
always  held  with  vehement  conviction,  but  who 
was  ever  solicitous  to  construct  defences  round 
it,  building  up  a  new  fort  for  every  old  fort 
that  was  thrown  down.  With  apologetics  Mr. 
Spurgeon  had  no  concern  at  all.  "  Whereas  I 
was  blind,  now  I  see,"  was  the  first  and  the  last 
of  his  defences  of  the  faith. 

What  is  the  evangelical  love  for  Christ  ? 
What  are  its  perennial  sources  and  characteris- 
tics ?  It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  evangelical 
love  is  an  admiration  for  Christ.  Those  who 
do  not  admire  Christ  in  a  sense  have  smned 
the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost.  Though  the 
terrible  alternative,  either  God  or  not  good, 
logically  holds,   those   who    do    not    believe    that 


276  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

Christ  was  God  see  much  in  His  life  and  teaching 
worthy  of  praise.  Literary  unbelief  has  shrunk 
from  many  words  about  Jesus,  but  when  we 
get  at  the  meaning  of  the  unbelief  of  such  men 
as  Burns  and  Carlyle,  we  find  that  they  thought 
of  Christ  as  an  amiable  dreamer.  It  is  pathetic 
to  see  how  Renan  endeavours  to  save  His 
character.  He  thinks  that  Christ  partly  de- 
teriorated as  He  went  on  vindicating  His 
Messianic  claims,  and  that  it  would  have  been 
better  if  He  had  died  after  preaching  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  or  by  the  well  of  Samaria.  But  he 
pleads  that  sincerity  in  the  modern  sense  is  not 
a  Semitic  virtue,  and  that  all  Christ's  fault  was 
that  He  took  humanity  with  its  illusions  and 
sought  to  act  upon  it  and  with  it.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that  the  evangelical  love  of  Christ  rests  on 
an  implicit  faith  in  His  sinlessness.  But  it  is 
more  than  this  faith.  It  is  more  than  honour, 
it  is  more  than  trust,  it  is  more  than  obedience, 
it  is  something  warmer  and  tenderer  than  all 
these,  for  it  is  love. 

The  evangelical  love  for  Christ  rests  first  upon 
His  love  for  us.  There  is  a  love  for  the  dead  we 
have  never  known,  a  true  love,  a  love  that  may 
grow  with    the  years.     Companionship  with  the 


THE  EVANGELICAL  LOVE  FOR  CHRIST      277 

words  of  a  noble  spirit  like  St.  Paul  may  quicken 
the  ardour  of  a  true  affection.  But  then  there  is 
no  answering  love  in  return.  They  do  not  love 
us,  and  have  never  loved  us.  They  do  not  even 
know  us,  but  Our  Saviour  knows  us,  has  known 
us  from  the  beginning — has  loved  us  from  the 
beginning.  "  Who  loved  me  ?  "  There  is  nothing 
in  life  which  is  at  once  so  humbling  and  so 
ennobling  as  it  is  to  be  loved  by  a  nature  far 
higher  and  purer  than  our  own,  and,  thanks  be  to 
God,  it  is  a  common  experience.  In  every  form 
love  is  precious.  The  love  of  the  weak,  the  love 
of  the  ignorant,  the  love  of  the  sinful,  if  it  is  true, 
is  not  to  be  lightly  thought  of.  But  it  is  the  love 
of  the  higher  bestowed  upon  the  lower  that  rallies 
the  sinking  forces  of  life  and  helps  us  to  play  the 
man.  Down  into  the  depths  and  failures  of  our 
history  this  love  comes  streaming,  however  wc 
may  be  despised  of  men.  "Thou  hast  been 
precious  in  my  sight,  and  honourable,  and  I  have 
loved  thee."  There  is  a  saying  of  an  old  mystic 
that  it  is  impossible  for  love  not  to  be  returned 
in  some  measure  or  another.  That  may  be 
an  exaggeration,  though  it  has  its  element  of 
truth,  and  yet  it  is  hard  to  think  that  any  one 
can    believe    in   the    love   of  Christ    to   ////;/,  and 


278  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

not  be  constrained  in  some  way  to  give  the  love 
back. 

The  deep  foundation  and  the  certain  assurance 
of  the  love  of  Christ  is  that  He  died  to  redeem 
us.  Whenever  the  heart  is  most  kindled,  it  is 
by  the  thought  of  the  well  of  God  dug  by  the 
soldiers'  spears,  of  the  cross,  the  sponge,  the 
vinegar,  the  nails,  of  the  red  wine  of  love  that 
flowed  when  He  trod  the  winepress  alone,  and  of 
the  people  there  was  none  with  Him,  of  the  sweet 
and  dreadful  cry,  "  Eli,  Eli,  lama  sabachthani  ?  " 
Perhaps  every  intense,  passionate,  human  love 
has  its  foundation  in  some  act,  some  sacrifice, 
some  day  of  days  to  which  the  heart  keeps  turn- 
ing in  its  darkness,  and  Mr.  Spurgeon  says,  "  1 
should  not  like  to  guess  how  heavy  a  true  heart 
may  sometimes  become."  The  old  hymns  are 
full  of  this. 

"  Lo\-e  so  vast  that  nought  can  bound, 
Love  too  deep  for  thought  to  sound ; 
Love  that  made  the  Lord  of  all 
Drink  the  wormwood  and  the  gall ; 
Love  which  led  Him  to  the  cross, 
Bearing  there  unuttered  loss. 

Love  which  brought  Him  to  the  gloom 
Of  the  cold  and  darksome  tomb  ; 
Love  which  will  not  let  Him  rest 
Till  His  chosen  all  are  blest. 


THE  EVANGELICAL  LOVE  FOR  CHRIST      279 

Till  they  all  for  whom  He  died, 
Live  rejoicing  by  His  side." 

Our  love  flames  up  as  we  recognise  that  He  has 
not  in  vain  suffered  life  and  death  for  us,  that  the 
strings  that  bound  our  burden  to  us  begin  to 
crack,  and  our  load  falls  into  His  sepulchre  to  be 
seen  no  more.  Perhaps  it  is  true  that  in  this 
love  there  is  an  element  of  remorse,  and  is  not 
that  the  most  quickening  element  in  a  great 
human  afliection  ?  Few  can  say  that  they  have 
answered  back  the  love  that  was  given  them  as 
they  should  have  answered  it,  and  at  the  memory 
every  energy  of  the  heart  aw^akes. 

"  I  seem  to  hear  your  laugh,  your  talk,  your  song, 
It  is  not  true  that  Love  will  do  no  wrong. 
Poor  child ! 

And  did  you  think,  when  you  so  cried  and  smiled, 
How  I,  in  lonely  nights,  should  lie  awake. 
And  of  these  words  your  full  avengers  make  ? 
Poor  child,  poor  child. 
And  now,  unless  it  be, 

That  sweet  amends  thrice  told  are  come  to  thee, 
O  God,  have  Thou  no  mercy  upon  me. 
Poor  child  !  " 

Is  not  that  the  meaning  of  the  Song  in  heaven  ? 
"  Worthy  is  ihe  Lamb  that  ivas  slain  to  receive 
power,  and  riches,  and  wisdom,  and  strength,  and 
honour,  and  glory,  and  blessing."     He  was  slain, 


28o  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

and  we  slew  Him.  We  can  never  make  it  up. 
Tlie  thorns  of  the  thorn-crowned  head  pierce  the 
heart,  the  fever  of  His  death  wakes  the  fever  of 
our  passion  till  all  the  loves  that  once  strayed 
abroad  gather  to  a  burning  centre,  and  the 
fountain  of  our  affections  has  but  one  channel, 
and  that  is  He. 

The  evangelical  love  for  Christ  rests  on  the 
constant  consciousness  of  His  presence.  He  is 
really  present.  We  speak  to  Him,  we  tell  Him 
of  all  our  weaknesses,  our  want,  our  sin,  our 
failure,  our  longing.  It  is  this  which  the  mystics 
most  desire  to  teach.  Love  must  be  able  to  come 
near,  to  enter  into  the  closest,  most  endearing 
intimacies.  There  is  a  real  peril  in  trying  to 
parallel  the  sacred  mysteries  of  the  spiritual  life 
from  earthly  analogies ;  and  yet  what  could  be 
more  significant  of  the  waning  of  Christianity 
than  that  Christians  should  actually  be  gravely 
discussing  whether  people  who  deny  any  present 
communion  with  Christ  at  all  may  not  be  as  good 
Christians  as  those  whose  life-habit  it  is  ?  Let  us 
not  deceive  ourselves.  There  is  no  Christianity 
which  does  not  mean  this,  and  we  find  in  the 
New  Testament  language  strained  and  pressed  to 
its  utmost  meaning  in  order  to  express  this  truth. 


THE  EVANGELICAL  LOVE  FOR  CHRIST      281 

"  We  will  come  unto  him,  and  make  our  abode 
with  him,"  said  the  Son.  "  I  live,  yet  not  I,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me,"  said  the  Apostle.  The 
mystery  of  union  with  Christ  is  the  ultimate 
m3'stery  and  experience  of  the  Christian  faith. 
There  was  one  of  whom  it  was  said  that  he 
often  fell  asleep  talking  to  Christ,  was  often 
heard  in  his  dreams  speaking  to  his  Saviour, 
and  there  are  multitudes  now  who  are  not 
speaking  emptily  when  they  say  that  their 
Redeemer  has  been  with  them  this  many  a  year. 

This  love  of  the  soul  for  Christ  is  a  love  that 
trusts  His  love  as  constant  and  almighty.  It  is 
constant,  and  human  love  is  much  of  it  incon- 
stant. Even  where  it  is  truest  the  communion 
may  be  snapped  at  any  moment  by  death.  And 
human  love  is  weak,  and  cannot  even  by  the  last 
sacrifice  accomplish  what  it  yearns  for.  "  Would 
God  I  had  died  for  thee,  O  Absalom,  my  son,  my 
son  !  "  There  is  little  here  that  we  can  count  on. 
Friends  fail  us,  death  takes  our  truest,  and  3'et 
we  can  count  on  that  love  which  is  constant 
in  all  worlds,  through  all  years,  that  love 
in  which  the  dead  are  living  and  the  lost  are 
found,  that  love  which  does  not  die  when  we 
die,  that  does   not    cease    to  care  when  we  can 


282  JHE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

care  no  longer,  that  love  in  which  we  and   our 

beloved  dwell  as  in  a  fortress-home.     Aubrey  de 

Vere  writes  of  one  who  imagines  herself  dead 

and  her  lover  living  alone,  and  then,  reproaching 

herself,  remembers    the    love  which  can  still  be 

his : 

"  Upon  my  gladness  fell  a  gloom  ; 
Thee  saw  I — on  some  far-off  day — 
My  Husband,  by  thy  loved  one's  tomb  ; 
I  could  not  help  thee  where  I  lay. 

Ah,  traitress  I,  to  die  the  first ! 
Ah,  hapless  thou  to  mourn  alone ! 
Sudden  that  truth  upon  me  burst, 
Confessed  so  oft,  till  then  unknown — 

There  lives  who  loved  him  !  loves  and  loved 
Better  a  million-fold  than  I  ! 
That  love  with  countenance  unremoved 
Looked  on  him  from  eternity. 

That  love  of  wisdom  and  of  power, 
Though  I  were  dust  would  guard  him  still, 
And  faithful  at  the  last  dread  hour, 
Stand  near  him  whispering,  '  Fear  no  ill.'  '' 

This  evangelical  love  for  Christ  is  then  a  pas- 
sionate love.  There  is  on  earth  the  vividness  of 
first  love,  the  fervour  of  early  passion,  and  this 
finds  its  likeness  in  the  Christian's  love  for 
Christ.  But  there  is  on  earth  a  love  nobler 
than  that,  a  love  that  glows  with  a  great,  steady 


THE  EVANGELICAL  LOVE  FOR  CHRIST      283 

ardour,  with  a  still,  intense,  vehement  flame,  and 
this  is  the  Christian  ideal.  This  is  the  love  that 
labours  when  all  labour  without  it  would  be  hard 
and  heavy.  This  is  the  love  that  fights  when 
all  seems  dead  against  it.  This  is  the  love  that 
lifts  up  its  spear  against  ten  thousand,  and  turns 
the  strength  of  the  foemen  at  the  gates.  This 
is  the  love  that  welcomes  suffering  for  the  be- 
loved's sake.  Sacrifice  is  continually  changing 
its  form,  but  it  is  always  present  in  the  life  of 
the  Christian.  Where  it  is  most  present  there 
is  love  warmest  and  kindest.  When  Ignatius 
was  led  to  his  martyrdom,  and  thought  of  the 
nearness  of  his  death  and  pain,  he  said,  "  Now 
I  begin  to  be  a  Christian."  Well  has  it  been  said 
that  wherever  the  Church  goes  the  thick  smoke 
of  her  suffering  ascends  to  heaven.  "  We  are 
alway  delivered  to  death  for  Jesus'  sake." 


THE  THEOLOGY  OE  WALTER  PATER* 

THE  alienation  between  literature  and  the 
Church  is  at  last  recognised  as  a  serious 
and  formidable  fact.  And  the  idea  has  gained 
currency  that  if  large  parts  of  the  Christian 
dogma  could  be  abandoned  or  thrown  into  the 
shade,  the  result  would  be  a  religion  acceptable 
to  the  cultured.  If  it  were  so,  our  duty  would  in 
no  wise  be  changed.  We  should  still  have  to 
declare  all  the  counsel  of  God.  We  should  still 
have  to  say,  "  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  that 
which  I  deliver  unto  you."  Otherwise  preaching 
descends  to  the  level  of  speech-making.  But  we 
maintain  that  it  is  not  so,  that  a  volatilised 
Christianity  has  no  more  attraction  for  the 
man  of  letters  than  it  has  for  the  rest  of  man- 
kind.      A    very    striking    proof  of  this  may    be 

"   Essays  in  the  Giianlian.     By  Walter  Pater.      Privately 
printed. 


286  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

found  in  a  curious  little  volume  of  which  one 
hundred  copies  only  have  been  printed  for  private 
circulation.  This  contains  nine  reviews  contri- 
buted to  the  Giiaj'dian  by  Mr.  Walter  Pater. 
Mr.  Gosse,  we  believe,  has  edited  the  volume, 
and  that  distinguished  critic  correctly  says  that 
though  the  positive  value  of  the  essays  may  be 
slight,  they  are  of  value  and  interest  as  proceed- 
ing from  Mr.  Pater.  It  seems  to  us  that  they 
are  of  very  eminent  value  in  helping  us  to  under- 
stand the  exact  theological  position  in  which  he 
finally  rested.  It  is  quite  superfluous  to  say 
that  Pater  was  an  ideal  exponent  of  the  culture 
of  his  day. 

In  "  Marius  the  Epicurean,"  his  most  elaborate 
and  living  book,  Mr.  Pater  enforces  and  enlarges 
the  philosophy  of  his  work  on  the  Renaissance. 
It  is  expressed  in  few  words  :  A  counted 
number  of  pulses  is  given  us  of  varied  dramatic 
life.  We  have  an  interval,  and  then  our  place 
knows  us  no  more.  Our  business  is  to  expend 
that  interval  in  getting  as  many  pulsations  as 
possible  into  the  given  time.  This  might  be 
called  Epicureanism ;  the  author  calls  it  New 
Cyrenaeicism.  When  the  glamour  of  youth  dies 
away,  something  more  is  needed  than  this  philo- 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  WALTER  PATER         287 

sophy  of  moments.  Life  seeks  pathetically  for 
continuity,  for  what  lasts  and  binds,  and  can  be 
handed  on  from  soul  to  soul.  That  continuity  it 
finds  in  the  ancient  and  wonderful  ethical  order 
which  is  in  impregnable  possession  of  humanity. 
The  crystallised  feeling  that  is  stored  in  the 
world's  moral  belief  attracts  the  seeker  for 
pleasure.  Pleasure  is  not  to  be  found  as  he  first 
thought,  in  the  violation  of  this  moral  order,  but 
in  submission  to  it.  His  sceptical  attitude  may 
be,  and  indeed  is,  still  maintained.  Morality 
may  have  no  absolute  virtue  or  validity,  but 
obedience  is  a  source  of  pleasure  and  quickening 
faculty  to  the  individual.  It  will  be  seen  that  we 
have  advanced  to  morality,  but  not  be3'ond 
Epicureanism.  A  further  step  is  taken  towards 
religion,  and  it  is  in  the  same  direction.  Christi- 
anity may  not  be  true,  but  it  is  best  to  treat  it  as 
if  it  were.  True  Christian  feeling  gives  bright- 
ness and  sweetness  to  life  and  mitigates  the 
awfulness  of  death.  Christianity  enshrines  much 
of  the  most  heroic  and  noble  feeling  and  utter- 
ance of  the  human  spirit.  Therefore  it  is  wise  to 
take  it  on  trust.  The  intellectual  citadel  should 
be  kept  inviolate.  You  may  think,  if  you  please, 
with  the  elect  who  are  the  small  minority.     But 


288  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

you  will  be  wise  to  give  yourself  at  the  same 
time  to  the  prayers  and  tears  and  dreams  of  the 
the  majority.  In  this  way  the  sweetest,  most 
elusive,  most  delicate  flavour  will  be  given  to  life 
and  death  will  lose  something  of  its  terror. 
Marius,  who  in  reality  died  but  a  half  Christian 
death,  was  generously  recognised  as  a  martyr  in 
times  when  mart3'rdom  was  taken  as  a  kind  of 
sacrament  with  plenary  grace. 

In  his  unfinished  last  book,  "  Gaston  de 
Latour,"  Pater  goes  further.  His  editor,  Mr. 
Shadwell,  says  that  the  book  w'as  to  be  a  picture 
of  a  refined  and  cultivated  mind,  capable  of  keen 
enjoyment  in  the  pleasures  of  the  senses  and  the 
intellect,  but  destined  to  find  its  complete  satis- 
faction in  that  which  transcends  both.  The  final 
expression  of  Pater's  mind  in  this  book  has  been 
well  summed  up  in  the  text,  "  I  have  seen  that  all 
things  come  to  an  end,  but  Thy  commandment  is 
exceeding  broad."  The  utmost  limits  of  the  new 
ways  are  reached,  and  the  restless  and  immortal 
spirit  pursues  its  quest  further  and  finds  its  large 
room  in  the  commandment.  It  was  stated,  though 
not  very  prominently,  when  Pater  died,  that  he 
had  been  for  years  a  professed  believer  in  Christ, 
and  we   owe  much   gratitude   to   Mr.    Gosse   for 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  WALTER  PATER  289 

giving  us  the  proof  of  this,  and  i'or  indicating  the 
Hnes  on  which  Pater  advanced  beyond  his 
Epicureanism.  The  most  interesting  passage  is 
perhaps  that  in  which  he  deals  very  courteously 
with  Robert  Elsmere.  "  We  have  little  patience," 
says  Pater,  "  with  the  liberal  clergy  who  dwell  on 
nothing  else  than  the  difficulties  of  faith  and  the 
propriety  of  concession  to  the  opposite  forces." 
He  goes  on  to  say :  "  As  against  the  purely 
negative  action  of  the  scientific  Ward,  the  high- 
pitched  Gray,  and  the  theistic  Elsmere,  the 
ritualistic  priest,  and  the  quaint  Methodist,  Flem- 
ing, both  so  admirably  sketched,  present  perhaps 
no  unconquerable  differences.  The  question  of 
the  day  is  not  between  one  and  anotlier  of  these, 
but  in  another  sort  of  opposition,  well  defined  by 
Mrs.  Ward  herself,  between  'two  estimates  of 
life,  the  estimate  which  is  the  offspring  of  the 
scientific  spirit,  and  which  is  for  ever  making  the 
visible  world  fairer  and  more  desirable  in  mortal 
eyes,  and  the  estimate  of  St.  Augustine.'  To  us," 
Pater  goes  on,  "  the  belief  in  God,  in  goodness  at 
all,  in  the  story  of  Bethlehem,  does  not  rest  on 
evidence  so  diverse  in  character  and  force  as  Mrs. 
Ward  supposes.  At  his  death,  Elsmere  has 
started  what  to  us  would  be  a  most  unattractive 

T 


290  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

place  of  worship,  where  he  preaches  an  admirable 
sermon  on  the  purely  human  aspect  of  the  life  of 
Christ.  But  we  think  there  would  be  very  few 
such  sermons  in  the  new  church  or  chapel,  for 
the  interest  of  that  life  could  hardly  be  very  varied 
when  all  such  sayings  as  '  Though  He  was  rich, 
yet  for  our  sakes  He  became  poor/  have  ceased 
to  be  applicable  to  it.  It  is  the  infinite  nature  of 
Christ  which  has  led  to  such  diversities  of  genius 
in  preaching  as  St.  Francis,  and  Taylor,  and 
Wesley."  Again,  in  his  essay  on  Amiel  he 
criticises  Amiel's  religion,  and  says  that  his  pro- 
foundly religious  spirit  might  have  developed 
"  had  he  been  able  to  see  that  the  old-fashioned 
Christianity  is  itself  but  the  proper  historic 
development  of  the  true  *  essence '  of  the  New 
Testament.  Assenting  on  probable  evidence  to 
so  many  judgments  of  the  religious  sense,  he 
failed  to  see  the  equally  probable  evidence  that 
there  is  for  the  beliefs ;  the  peculiar  direction  of 
men's  hopes,  which  complete  those  judgments 
harmoniously,  and  bring  them  into  connection 
with  the  facts ;  the  venerable  institutions  of  the 
past,  with  the  lives  of  the  saints.  By  failure,  as 
we  think,  of  that  historic  sense  of  which  he  could 
speak  so  well,  he  got  no  further  in  that  direction 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  WALTER  PATER         291 

than  the  glacial  condition  of  rationalistic  Geneva." 
It  is  that  very  Genevan  rationalism  which  is  ever 
and  anon  being  recommended  as  the  specific  for 
our  ills,  but  Pater  saw  that  if  any  powerful  part 
of  Christianity  is  accepted,  it  involves  the  rest, 
and  that  ultimately  the  witness  of  all  the  saints, 
and  not  only  the  experience  of  the  individual,  is 
to  be  relied  upon,  for  it  was  to  the  saints  that  the 
faith  was  first  of  all  delivered. 

We  go  back  on  another  typical  figure  of  the 
world  of  culture,  one  who  never,  like  Pater,  com- 
pletely surrendered  his  unbelief.  Clough,  whose 
inexplicable  attraction,  notwithstanding  the  small 
amount  of  his  enduring  product,  continues,  left  a 
fragment  belonging  to  the  last  period  of  his  life, 
on  "The  Religious  Tradition."  Most  readers 
know  something  of  his  hard  battle  with  moral  and 
intellectual  perplexities,  from  the  time  when  he 
went  to  Oxford,  and  was  for  two  years,  in  his 
own  words,  like  a  straw  drawn  by  the  draught  of 
a  chimney,  on  to  his  premature  death.  But  his 
later  years,  if  they  were  not  filled  with  the  strange, 
unearthly  peace  which  is  the  final  token  of  Christ's 
indwelling,  were  much  more  quiet  than  the  earlier. 
He  had  begun  to  see  that  it  was  not  his  business 
to  construct  a  religion  or  a  theology,  or  to  achieve 


292  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

his  own  salvation.  He  began  to  recognise, 
though  dimly,  that  these  things  were  the  work  of 
Another.  In  his  last  writings  he  laid  emphasis 
on  the  significance  and  depth  of  the  moral  and 
religious  teaching  which  passed  by  the  name  of 
Christianity,  and  wrote  that  "implicit  reliance 
cannot  be  placed  on  the  individual  experience, 
reason,  judging  power."  Therefore,  he  says,  "  I 
see  not  what  alternative  any  sane  or  humble- 
minded  man  can  have  but  to  throw  himself  upon 
the  great  religious  tradition."  His  opinion  on  a 
pared-down,  accommodated  Christianity  is  seen 
in  the  words  :  "  I  contend  that  the  Unitarian  is 
morally  and  religiously  only  half  educated  com- 
pared with  the  Episcopalian."  So  it  comes  at 
last  that  the  wisest  begin  to  doubt  themselves, 
begin  to  see  how  little  way  their  individual 
faculties  carry  them,  discover  that  Christianity  is 
not  a  new  thing,  but  that  for  all  these  centuries 
the  Spirit  has  interpreted  the  Word  to  the  hearts 
of  believers.  They  accept  some  word  of  God- 
guided  men,  prove  it  in  their  own  experience,  and 
then,  even  if  their  experience  tarries  behind,  they 
trust  the  inspired  leader  and  go  on  with  him. 
They  have  lost  the  desire  to  construct  a  new  path 
to   heaven ;    they  are  content  to    take    the    way 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF   WALTER  PATER         293 

which  the  saints  have  trodden,  the  way  that  leads 
to  the  Fountain. 

Something  may  be  said  also  of  Balzac — a  writer 
who  is  at  last  coming  to  his  own  in  England. 
It  is  quite  true  that  Balzac's  novels  are  not  for 
everybody,  and  that  many  of  them,  perhaps  most, 
should  be  kept  out  of  the  hands  of  the  young. 
He  was  the  greatest  of  those  who  have  explored 
the  subterranean  ways  of  life  and  set  in  a  terrible 
lustre  the  secret  things  of  darkness.  His  books 
are  full  of  the  tremendous  pursuit  of  retribution, 
of  the  slowly  gathering  coils  of  fate,  of  the 
mysteries  of  pain  and  shame  lying  under  the  thin 
surface  of  life.  His  characters  are  haunted  by 
thoughts  of  the  past,  by  hopeless  hopes,  by 
devouring  recollections,  and  he  shows  us — and 
this  perhaps  is  his  greatest  achievement — that 
these  things  are  to  be  found  no  less  in  the  quiet 
woods  and  fields  than  in  the  crowded  city.  We 
will  steadily  refuse  to  say  that  this  literature, 
when  done  grandly,  has  not  its  place  and  use. 
It  brings  home,  as  few  things  do,  the  sense  of 
human  sinfulness  and  human  misery,  and  in 
many  passages  of  Holy  Scripture  the  same 
method  is  used  to  produce  the  same  result. 
Indeed,  we  believe  that  if  the  Christian  Churcli  is 


294  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

to  recover  its  old  power,  it  will  be  in  recoiling 
from  the  shallow  optimism  which  refuses  to  put 
aside  the  silken  curtains  and  see  what  is  behind. 
The  question  of  Balzac's  greatness  as  an  artist  is 
one  of  criticism,  and  we  should  think  few  com- 
petent judges  will  deny  that  he  is  incomparably 
the  finest  of  French  novelists,  and  indeed  the 
first  novelist,  with  one  exception,  of  the  whole 
century.  Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  he  him- 
self, notwithstanding  his  long,  pitiful  struggle, 
was  one  of  the  friendliest,  gentlest,  and  kindest 
of  men.  Few  records  are  more  touching  and 
noble  than  the  collection  of  his  letters,  and  we 
have  dwelt  again  and  again,  with  deep  emotion, 
on  many  passages — on  his  filial  love,  on  his  in- 
vincible courage,  on  his  impatience  of  the 
materialistic  creed,  on  the  heroism  with  which  in 
his  rainy  garret  he  went  on  year  after  year  with- 
out encouragement,  doing  his  very  best.  And 
above  all,  where  shall  we  find  such  a  story  of 
pure,  tender,  delicate  devotion  as  that  of  his 
fifteen  years'  love,  or  a  more  pathetic  episode 
than  his  death,  after  but  three  months  of  the 
long-waited  happiness  ?  That  Balzac  was  free 
from  follies  it  would  be  ridiculous  to  deny, 
but    how     much     of    passionate     affection     and 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  WALTER  PATER         295 

devotion  lay  behind  them  !  When  in  the  end 
of  the  day  death  set  the  doors  open  and  let 
the  sun  shine  in,  the  closet  of  this  man,  who 
had  drawn  such  pictures  of  the  skeleton  in 
every  closet,  was  found  empty.  We  have  not 
space  to  make  quotations,  but  where  in  the  litera- 
ture of  fiction  can  one  find  so  complete  an  expo- 
sition of  remorse  and  expiation  as  that,  for 
example,  in  his  book,  "  The  Country  Pastor  "  ? 
His  great  intellect  and  noble  heart  rested  de- 
voutly on  the  experience  of  the  saints.  He 
found  no  difficulty  in  the  humble  acceptance  of 
the  Christian  creed,  and  one  can  imagine  what 
scorn  would  have  awakened  in  him  by  the  gaunt 
and  forlorn  structure  which  is  dressed  out  and 
set  forth  among  us  anew  as  the  Christian  faith. 
How  often,  even  in  his  least  ungenial  writing, 
when  he  seems  abandoned  to  the  spirit  of  cynicism, 
does  his  faith  flash  up  and  drive  it  out  of  sight ! 
There  be  those  who,  with  Matthew  Arnold,  still 
hear  the  melancholy,  long  withdrawing  roar  of 
the  sea  of  faith  as  it  steadily  retreats  and  leaves 
the  barren  shingles  naked.  Others,  more  wise, 
hear  the  wave  of  joy. and  hope  that  is  to  lift  the 
world  coming-  nearer  and  nearer. 


IS    THE    SERMON    ON    THE    MOUNT 
THE  CHRISTIAN  GOSPEL?* 

I  "HERE  is  great  room  for  some  independent 
^  and  robust  works  of  native  manufacture 
dealing  with  Christian  ethics.  We  have  been  too 
much  dependent  upon  foreigners  for  instruction 
of  this  kind,  and  at  the  moment  of  writing  the 
only  epoch-making  English  contribution  that  we 
recall  to  this  subject  is  the  admirable  work  of 
Dr.  Wace  on  Christianity  and  Morality.  Mr. 
Strong's  book  is  therefore  very  welcome.  He  is 
already  known  to  a  small  circle  of  readers  as 
the  author  of  a  handbook  of  Christian  theology, 
which  somehow  strangely  failed  to  make  an  im- 
pression, but  which,  although  it  has  its  short- 
comings, contains  much  that  is  both  masculine 
and  devout.      It  is  perhaps  impossible  to  rate  his 

■•■  "  Christian  Ethics."  The  Bampton  Lectures  for  1895. 
By  T.  B.  Strong.  M..\.,  Student  of  Christchurch.  Long- 
mans. 


298  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

Bampton  Lectures  as  highly,  yet  they  will  take  a 
good  place  in  the  series,  and  they  deserve  an 
attentive  perusal.  The  book  is  well  written, 
although  there  is  a  lack  of  ring  and  concentration, 
and  an  amount  of  repetition  possibly  to  be 
excused  in  the  pulpit,  but  inevitably  resented  b}' 
the  reader.  All  parts  of  the  book  are  not  of 
the  same  value.  The  concluding  chapter  on 
Ethics  and  the  Church  is  unsatisfactory,  and 
the  same  may  be  said  of  all  the  passages 
where  the  Church  is  introduced.  Mr.  Strong's 
reading,  extensive  and  careful  in  some  directions, 
is  limited  in  others.  For  example,  he  makes  no 
reference  to  Rothe  and  Martensen,  though  both, 
and  especially  the  former,  could  have  taught  him 
very  much.  It  is  nothing  short  of  a  scandal  that 
the  great  work  of  Rothe  in  Holtzmann's  edition 
has  not  been  translated  into  English.  The  third 
section  of  the  book,  the  PJlichtenlchrc,  in  par- 
ticular, is  worth  all  the  English  books  on  Chris- 
tian ethics  put  together.  Mr.  Strong,  though  he 
has  studied  the  Fathers  and  given  us  some  fresh 
and  interesting  details  of  their  ethical  theories,  is 
weak  in  the  Reformation  literature,  and  his  section 
on  the  Reformation  is  very  defective,  not  from  any 
will  to  misrepresent,  but  from  want  of  knowledge. 


THE  SERMON  ON  THE  MOUNT  299 

There  is,  however,  much  that  is  valuable  in 
this  book,  and  we  propose  to  reproduce  Mr. 
Strong's  argument  against  the  view  that  has  been 
revived  in  our  day,  that  the  whole  of  Christianit}' 
lies  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount — in  other  words, 
that  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  the  Chris- 
tian Gospel.  It  is  against  this  theory  that 
he  directs  the  whole  force  of  his  reasoning, 
and  with  complete  success  so  far  as  he  goes, 
though,  as  we  shall  see,  he  has  almost  wholly 
neglected  a  line  of  argument  equally  weight}^  and 
important  with  that  to  which  he  has  done  such 
justice. 

Mr.  Strong  shows  that  the  fault  of  Greek  and 
Jewish  ethics  was  that  they  commanded  from 
without.  Righteousness,  therefore,  could  not 
come  of  them.  The  Jews,  it  is  true,  under  the 
guidance  of  revelation,  found  a  purer  morality 
than  the  Greeks  ;  the}'  went  deeper  into  the 
causes  of  moral  failure,  and  found  them  in  the 
will.  All  the  same,  that  law  in  which  they  de- 
lighted could  not  save  them,  and  the  worship  of 
the  law  produced  in  Judaism  the  most  unlovel}', 
hard,  and  unspiritual  of  all  characters.  For  a 
greater  depth  of  tenderness  one  had  to  look  for 
those  who    in   a  sense  dispensed   with  the  law. 


300  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

waiting  for  some  better  thing  to  come,  even  the 
consolation  of  Israel. 

When  our  Lord  appeared  and  preached  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  situation  was  not 
altered  in  essence.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
asserted  the  authority  of  a  new  teacher,  and  it 
laid  stress  on  the  spiritual  virtues — in  this  follow- 
ing the  loftier  strain  of  Hebrew  thought.  It  gave 
a  promise  of  perfection — the  perfection  of  the 
Father  in  heaven.  Nevertheless  it  remained  a 
law.  It  gave  commands  to  the  will,  set  before  the 
will  an  ideal,  but  it  did  not  give  any  direct  pro- 
mise of  guidance,  and  it  did  not  say  how  per- 
fection was  to  be  reached.  And  therefore  it  is 
true  that  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  kills  as  relent- 
lessly as  the  law,  nay,  even  more  relentlessly, 
because  it  is  more  difficult.  The  heights  to 
be  scaled  are  impossible  heights.  Mr.  Strong 
points  out  very  frankly  that  whenever  people 
have  tried  to  obey  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  from 
an  external  point  of  view  they  have  failed  hope- 
lessly, and  ended  in  utter  confusion.  The  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  constrains  and  presses  the  will  at 
every  point,  closes  avenues  of  action,  and  opens 
a  path  which  unaided  none  are  able  to  tread.  So 
the  old  sober  view  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 


THE  SERMON  ON  THE  MOUNT  301 

that  expressed  by  Dr.  Robertson  Smith  in  his 
words  that  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  the 
preliminary  part  of  Christ's  work,  and  that  its 
object  was  to  show  how  His  teaching  attached 
itself  to  and  transcended  Jewish  teaching,  must 
stand.  It  is  the  only  one  that  coheres  with  the 
New  Testament,  that  coheres  even  with  the 
Gospels.  When  we  read  the  Gospels,  we  find  in 
them  very  little  moral  exhortation,  and  no  armoury 
of  ethical  precepts.  They  are  largely  historical 
anecdotes  of  a  life,  of  the  ideal  life.  St.  John 
sees  more  profoundly  into  the  springs  of  moral 
action  than  the  Synoptics,  but  his  book,  too,  is 
historical.  It  is  no  answer  that  in  the  case  of 
Jesus  the  ideal  was  real,  the  Word  was  made 
flesh.  Still  the  ideal  remained  external  to  the 
will,  and  such  an  ideal,  whether  expressed  in  the 
life  or  in  the  commandment,  may  very  easily 
hurt  rather  than  help.  It  may  so  confound,  dis- 
courage, and  abase  that  the  impulse  to  moral 
struggle  is  utterly  destroyed.  And  even  as  an 
ideal  it  is  incomplete ;  no  one  can  say  that  Christ 
has  solved  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  problems  of  lil'e. 
On  many  points  He  has  not  touched.  The  change 
of  circumstances,  the  progress  of  civilisation,  have 
called    into    existence    many    new    difficulties   on 


302  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

which,  viewed  from  the  outside,  His  career  gives 
us  very  Httle  light.  Considered  as  external,  this 
ideal,  great  and  supreme  as  it  is,  must  gradually 
fade  away  with  time. 

But  Christ  in  His  last  hours  opened  His  heart. 
He  had  previously  been  behaving  very  differently 
from  the  ordinary  teacher  of  a  new  theory. 
Instead  of  seeking  fresh  disciples  and  larger 
audiences,  He  turned  to  the  inner  circle,  and 
gave  His  force  to  strengthening  them.  He 
told  His  disciples  that  the  Spirit  of  Truth 
would  come  and  dwell  within  them,  and  open 
up  the  way  to  a  complete  communion  between 
God  and  man.  Through  His  death  and  through 
His  rising  again  a  new  power  would  enter  into 
the  world.  The  Holy  Ghost  dwelling  in  the 
heart  would  take  of  the  things  that  were  Christ's, 
would  interpret  their  meaning,  and  would  give 
the  power  to  fulfil  them  in  actual  experience.  In 
other  words,  Christ  does  not  so  much  exhort  as 
promise.  The  real  centre  of  investigation  into 
the  ethical  meaning  of  Christianity  must  be 
transferred  from  the  Gospel  story  to  the  time 
after  Pentecost.  Then  the  disciples  and  the 
world  too,  little  though  it  knew  it,  entered  into 
another    order,  in   which    forces    had    begun    to 


THE  SERMON  ON  THE  MOUNT  303 

stir  which  were  able  to  transform  sinful  men 
into  the  image  of  the  Son.  Jesus  was  the  Lord 
and  the  Mediator;  Mis  resurrection  sealed  His 
life  and  work  with  the  good  pleasure  of  God,  and 
opened  in  the  Holy  Spirit  a  new  spring  of  ethical 
activity  which  at  once  sharpened  the  perceptions 
of  the  conscience  and  gave  power  to  follow  them. 
Thus  the  whole  notion  of  morality  moved  inward, 
and  under  all  circumstances,  even  in  the  circum- 
stances sketched  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
the  new  faith  Avas  equal  to  its  battle,  and  ready 
to  meet  whatever  strain  might  be  imposed  upon 
it. 

In  this  way  we  understand,  what  indeed  has 
always  been  easily  understood  by  the  Christian 
Church,  the  position  of  the  Apostles.  They  say 
very  little  about  Christ's  teaching.  It  is  amazing 
how  few  direct  references  to  His  precepts  can  be 
discovered.  But  they  lay  the  whole  stress  upon 
those  points  which  most  distinctly  give  evidence 
of  the  entering  of  the  new  order  and  the  abroga- 
tion of  the  old,  namely,  the  Crucifixion  and 
the  Resurrection.  This  fresh  vital  force,  this 
bestowal  of  health,  this  power  set  in  motion 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  was  to  be  the  true  deliverance 
of    mankind — mankind    that    hitherto    had    been 


304  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

haunted  and  depressed  by  failure.  To  the 
Apostles  the  insistence  on  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  as  the  sum  of  Christianity  would  have 
appeared  a  relapse  into  hopeless  paganism. 

They  felt  this  all  the  more  because  they  under- 
stood the  depths  in  which  mankind  had  been 
plunged  by  the  Fall.  The  Greeks  knew  nothing 
of  a  Fall,  the  Jews  thought  that  the  Fall  might 
be  reversed  by  the  action  of  the  will,  but  to  the 
Apostles,  as  to  Christ,  our  whole  nature  was 
touched  by  incapacity.  The  abnormal  element 
in  human  nature  had  gained  the  mastery,  and  so 
we  were  enthralled  in  a  captivity  from  which  only 
the  death  and  resurrection  of  Our  Lord  could  set 
us  free.  Mr.  Strong  has  some  penetrating 
remarks  on  the  respective  tempers  in  which  sin 
is  treated  by  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New. 
There  is  a  passion  against  sin  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, a  passion  all  the  fiercer  because  sin  seems 
so  strong.  The  New  Testament  treats  it  far 
more  calmly.  It  is  equally  severe,  perhaps  more 
severe ;  it  preaches  the  present  judgment  of  sin 
as  well  as  the  day  of  reckoning  at  the  Parousia, 
but  it  looks  upon  sin  as  a  power  that  may  be 
conquered,  and  that  has  been  implicitly  conquered 
by  the  death  of   Jesus.       It    finds  no    explana- 


THE  SERMON  ON  THE  MOUNT  305 

tion  of  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  that 
does  not  recognise  the  Fall  and  the  Retrieval. 
It  is  little  to  sa)'  that  the  modern  washed-out 
version  of  Christianity,  which  represents  the 
death  of  Christ  as  a  sacrifice  in  the  sense  of  a 
resignation  of  good  things,  would  have  been 
rejected  by  the  Apostles.  It  would  not  even 
have  been  understood  by  them.  In  that  sense 
they  did  not  use  the  word  sacrifice  at  all. 

It  is  the  weak  point  of  Mr.  Strong's  book  that 
while  he  by  no  means  rejects,  but  rather  cordially 
accepts,  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement,  he  gives 
it  no  proper  place  in  Christian  ethics.  He  has 
one  lecture,  for  example,  on  the  great  text  of 
St.  Paul,  "We  preach  Christ  crucified,"  but  it 
is  hopelessly  unexegetical.  He  rides  off  on  the 
phrase  "  the  wisdom  of  God,"  trying  to  connect 
it  with  the  Old  Testament  thought  of  the  wisdom 
which  was  with  God  when  He  prepared  the 
heavens.  For  the  Apostle's  word  "  power "  he 
substitutes  "love,"  and  he  argues  that  "the 
reason  why  the  life  of  Christ  has  a  real  meaning 
for  our  lives  is  because  in  it  the  whole  wisdom 
and  love  of  God  were  manifested  in  full  in  their 
inseparable  unions."  He  almost  wholly  ignores 
the   fact   that  the  Apostle  is  laying  stress  upon 

u 


3o6  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

the  Atonement,  that  his  meaning  is,  "  We  preach 
Christ  as  crucified."  It  is  another  sign  of  the 
same  blindness  that  he  treats  the  Reformation 
as  if  it  estabhshed  a  certain  difference  between 
morality  and  religion.  What  the  Reformation 
did  was  to  establish  the  connection  of  morality 
with  the  Atonement.  In  the  Catechism  of  Heidel- 
berg the  whole  system  of  ethics  is  embraced 
under  the  article  concerning  gratitude.  And  so 
in  the  Confession  of  Basel  we  read :  "  We  do 
not  ascribe  righteousness  and  satisfaction  for  our 
sins  to  work  as  a  fruit  of  faith,  but  solely  to 
true  confidence  and  faith  in  the  Blood  of  the 
Lamb  of  God,  which  was  shed  for  the  remission 
of  our  sins,  for  we  freely  confess  that  all  things 
are  given  to  us  in  Christ.  Therefore  believers 
are  not  to  perform  good  works  to  make  satisfac- 
tion for  their  sins,  but  only  in  order  to  manifest 
their  gratitude  for  the  great  mercy  which  the 
Lord  God  has  shown  us  in  Christ."  A  deeper 
study  of  the  conditions  which  caused  the  Re- 
formation would  have  helped  him  to  see  that  it 
was  a  reaction  against  self-righteousness  which 
he  condemns,  that  self-righteousness  whose  end 
is  pride,  or  impotence,  or  recklessness.  We  read 
in  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  "  That  the  doc- 


THE  SERMON  ON  THE  MOUNT  307 

trine  of  faith,  which  must  be  the  chief  of  all  in 
the  Church,  lay  long  unknown,  as  all  must  con- 
fess that  in  preaching  there  was  the  most 
profound  silence  concerning  the  righteousness  of 
faith,  and  that  only  the  doctrine  of  works  was 
urged  in  churches."  The  result  of  preach- 
ing of  the  doctrine  of  works,  by  which  some 
believe  that  the  Church  ma}'  be  revived,  was 
that  the  practice  of  the  Evangelical  Church 
fell  into  the  deepest  decay,  ending  in  an 
entire  and  terrible  denial  of  Christ  and  His 
Gospel.  Mr.  Strong  speaks  indeed  of  the  barrier 
of  sin  being  taken  away,  but  he  does  not  under- 
stand what  was  central  alike  to  Apostolic  and 
Reformation  teaching,  that  in  the  reconciliation 
once  made  by  the  death  of  Christ,  and  not  in  the 
second  reconciliation  realised  internally  is  the 
essential  redeeming  principle. 

We  have  no  space  to  work  out  this  idea  or  to 
traverse  the  objectionable  portion  of  Mr.  Strong's 
teaching.  Though  unsatisfactory  in  his  treat- 
ment of  the  Atonement  and  in  the  part  of  his 
book  we  have  sketched,  he  is  in  harmony  with 
the  New  Testament,  with  the  Church,  and  with 
all  the  better  thinking  of  our  time,  whether 
Christian  or  not.      It  cannot  be  too  strongly  said 


3o8  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

that  the  unconscious  retreats  into  the  old 
Socinianism  which  we  have  to  lament  here  and 
there  are  not  in  the  line  of  the  serious  thought 
and  study  of  our  time.  As  for  the  complaint 
that  the  Christian  standard  is  too  high,  Mr. 
Strong  meets  it  nobly.  He  says  that  the  appeal 
to  expect  less  is  the  most  dangerous  form  in 
which  the  world  calls  upon  us  for  our  allegiance 
to  it.  **  For  we  know  how  much  there  is  still  to 
do,  and  how  slow  the  march  of  God's  purpose 
seems  to  short-li\-ed  men,  how  far  off  the  coming 
of  the  kingdom.  But  it  has  never  been  a  mark 
of  the  spirit  to  hope  and  scheme  only  for  what 
human  foresight  sees  may  easily  be  achieved. 
When  the  Lord  pours  out  His  Spirit,  young 
men  see  visions  and  old  men  dream  dreams, 
visions  and  dreams  that  rise  like  other  dreams 
out  of  an  experience  actually  attained  in  life 
and  are  prophetic  of  a  fulness  of  triumph  yet  to 
come." 


"GEOCENTRICISM":  THE  LATEST 
SCARECROW 

\  A  /E  may  as  well  explain  at  once  the  hideous 
^  ^  word  which  gives  the  title  to  these  pages. 
In  his  new  book,  *'  Guesses  at  the  Riddle  of 
Existence,"  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  contends  that 
those  who  believe  in  the  Christian  redemption 
believe  that  the  earth  is  the  centre  of  the  universe. 
According  to  Mr.  Smith,  the  Christian  view  of 
the  world  does  not  take  into  adequate  account  the 
insignificance  of  our  earth  in  comparison  with  the 
vastness  of  the  planetary  S3'stem.  We  shall  repl}' 
to  Mr.  Smith  on  this  head,  but  ere  doing  so  it  may 
be  worth  while  to  answer  from  his  own  mouth 
some  of  his  detailed  objections  to  Christian  doc- 
trine. His  early  books  were  so  occasional  in  their 
nature,  they  were  published  so  long  ago,  that 
even  ver}'  well-informed  critics,  like  a  writer  in 
the  Guardian,  do  not  know  them,  and  credit  Mr. 
Goldwin   Smith  with  a  much  greater  degree   of 


310  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

ignorance  than  he  can  rightly  claim.  They  think, 
and  the  mistake  is  natural,  that  Mr.  Smith  ap- 
proaches Christianity  from  the  outside.  What  is 
true  is  that  he  has  gone  outside  it. 

In  three  little  books  published  about  the  same 
time  and  under  the  same  influence,  there  is,  we 
believe,  more  genuine  Christian  passion  than  will 
be  found  in  equal  compass  through  the  whole 
range  of  the  Victorian  literature.  These  three 
little  books  are  Dora  Green  well's  *'  The  Patience 
of  Hope,"  F.  W.  H.  Myers's  "St.  Paul,"  and 
Gold  win  Smith's  "  Does  the  Bible  sanction  Ameri- 
can Slaver}'  ? "  All  three  books  were  written 
under  the  inspiration  of  Josephine  Butler.  Since 
the  volume  referred  to  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  has 
written  much,  and  his  style  is  so  brilliant,  his 
moral  ardour  so  contagious,  that  though  he  has 
adopted  the  strangest  ways  of  publication,  some 
readers  have  kept  track  of  him  and  missed  nothing 
that  they  could  find  out.  He  has  written  no  book 
that  will  live.  Indeed,  it  would  be  true  to  say 
that  he  has  written  no  book  at  all.  All  his  work 
is  occasional.  He  has  been  a  critic,  a  corres- 
pondent, a  pamphleteer,  a  contributor,  but  he  has 
never  braced  himself  to  the  deliberate  treatment 
of  a  great  subject.     He  is  himself  an   argument 


THE  LATEST  SCARECROW  311 

for  that  immortalit}^  which  he  has  come  to  doubt, 
for  it  is  hard  to  think  that  an  intellect  so  wakeful 
as  Goldwin  Smith's  should  ever  fall  on  sleep. 
One  of  his  earliest  and  most  effective  pamphlets 
was  written  in  reply  to  Mansel's  Bampton  Lectures, 
and  is  entitled  "  Rational  Religion."  From  its 
pages  we  find  that  Mr.  Smith  was  in  1861  a  firm 
believer  in  Christianity,  and  a  learned  and  en- 
lightened student  of  theology.  He  was  in  the 
main  a  follower  of  Coleridge,  whose  thought, 
according  to  him,  was  the  anchor  by  which  the 
religious  intellect  of  England  had  ridden  out  the 
storms  of  this  tempestous  age.  He  argued  for 
Christianity  from  its  effect  in  the  regeneration  of 
the  world,  and  from  the  type  of  character  displayed 
in  the  life  of  its  founder.  He  was  willing  to  con- 
cede the  fact  of  miracle,  finding  miracle  reasonable 
on  the  ground  that  the  first  believers  naturally 
had  such  evidence  as  they  could  understand. 
Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  talks  now  as  if  he  had  never 
read  Coleridge,  and  the  Guardian  naturally 
supposes  that  Mr.  Smith  has  been  trained  in 
the  old  theory  of  strict  verbal  inspiration,  in 
which  the  Bible  is  a  miracle  and  nothing  else, 
and  the  ordinary  conditions  of  authorship  are  in 
abeyance.     It  is  true  that  Mr.  Smith  now  argues 


312  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

as  if  that  were  so.     Either,  he  says,  the  six  days 
of  creation  must  be  rigidly  maintained,  as  well  as 
the  precise  literal  truth  of  all  the  early  narratives 
of  Genesis,  or  the  whole  Bible  is  discredited.     If 
any  one  suggests  that  there  ma}^  be  allegory'  in 
the  opening  chapters  of  Scripture,  Mr.  Smith  says, 
"  If  it  was  from  the  Holy  Spirit  that  this  narra- 
tive  emanated,    how  can    the    Holy  Spirit   have 
failed  to  let  mankind  know  that   they  are  alle- 
gories ?  "     Such  fatuities  are  almost  incredible  in 
a  man  who  once  at  least  knew  a  great  deal  better 
than  that.     Why,  it  is  more  than  thirt3^-five  years 
since  Mr.  Smith  complained  that  Mansel  insisted 
on  the  bare  hard  text  of  Scripture  as  if  it  were 
a  brazen  regulator  thrust  into  the  world   by  an 
almighty  Power.     It  was  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  who 
complained  that  Mansel's  system  drove  3'ou  either 
to  accept  the  literal  accuracy  of  every  part,  or  to 
reject    the    authority    of  the    whole.     He  justly 
scouted  the  idea  that  a  trivial  discrepancy  may 
deprive   man    of  revelation    and   God.     He  said 
nobly :    "  If  we   can    know  God   and    know  His 
voice,  these    difficulties    are    as    nothing.     If  we 
cannot  know  God,  they  are  death."     Mr.  Goldwin 
Smith  now  meddles  a  little  with  criticism,  and  he 
has  a  good  deal  to  say  against  the  Old  Testament. 


THE  LATEST  SCARECROW  313 

He  regards  it  as  a  great  burden  which  Christianity 
has  to  carr3^  He  was  wiser  once.  Nobody  spoke 
more  eloquently  than  he  of  the  righteousness  and 
pity  of  the  Divine  Word.  No  one  spoke  with 
more  scathing  scorn  of  those  who  attack  the 
morality  of  the  Old  Testament,  blind  to  the  fact 
that  the  Jewish  nation  was  not  a  miracle,  but  a 
people.  No  one  pointed  out  more  clearly  the 
gradual  spiritual  elevation  of  the  Old  Testament, 
the  way  in  which  the  essence  of  morality  keeps 
growing  through  its  pages.  He  showed  that  such 
a  moral  progress  is  what  we  must  have  expected 
to  find,  '*  unless  it  had  been  the  design  of  Provi- 
dence entirely  to  exempt  the  Jewish  nation  from 
all  spiritual  effort,  and  to  make  their  religious 
history  an  automatic  exhibition  utterly  discon- 
nected with  the  general  travailing  of  humanity, 
and  alien  to  the  sympathies  of  mankind."  He 
now  denies  the  Johannine  authorship  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  but  then  he  was  able  to  show 
how  in  its  concluding  chapters  we  saw  how  divine 
and  human  love  could  be  the  same.  Although 
Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  has  manifestly  failed  to  study 
recent  Biblical  criticism,  and  although  those  parts 
of  his  book  in  which  he  refers  to  the  subject  may 
properly  be  called  contemptible  for  their  ignorance 


314  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

and  unfairness,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  on  these 
subjects  he  may  be  invited  to  answer  himself. 

Mr,  Smith  has  now  come  to  doubt  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul.  It  is  impossible,  he  thinks,  to 
find  a  decently  cogent  proof  of  a  life  to  come. 
Here  again  we  answer  him  out  of  his  own  mouth. 
He  argued  once  that  our  moral  life  is  the  essence 
of  our  being,  and  that  our  moral  life  does  not  end 
when  the  body  dies.  "  If,"  said  he,  "  a  single 
man  can  be  found  whose  conscience,  fairly  inter- 
rogated, tells  him  or  suffers  him  to  act  on  the 
belief  that  the  death  of  the  bod}'  closes  the  moral 
account,  and  that  when  he  is  dead  it  will  be  all 
the  same  for  him  whether  in  his  life  he  has  done 
good  or  evil,  I  may  think  it  possible  to  believe 
that  there  is  no  proof,  except  in  Scripture,  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul."  Now  he  has  come 
to  question  all  the  arguments,  but  he  does 
not  willingly  resign  himself  to  the  new  situa- 
tion. "A  glory  has  passed  from  earth,  for 
on  every  festal  board  in  the  community  of  ter- 
restrial bliss  will  be  cast  the  shadow  of  approach- 
ing death,  and  the  sweeter  life  becomes,  the 
more  bitter  death  will  be."  Mr.  Smith  has  not 
come  to  the  comparative  acquiescence  of  W. 
R.  Greg  in  his  later  writings.     Greg  found  that 


THE  LATEST  SCARECROW  315 

three  score  3'ears  and  ten  quenched  the  pas- 
sionate desire  for  hfe.  \Vear3'  with  toil,  satiated 
with  pleasure,  having  had  sufficient  experience  of 
those  blessings  of  human  affection  which  are 
mingled  with  such  intense  agonies,  he  found  that 
renewed  existence  offered  no  inspiring  charms, 
that  he  was  tired  of  one  life  and  felt  scarcely 
equal  to  another,  that  he  yearned  most  for  rest, 
and  the  peace  he  could  imagine  easiest,  because 
he  knew  it  best,  was  the  peace  of  sleep.  This  is 
not  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith's  as  yet,  but  he,  too,  has 
come  to  believe  with  Greg  that  the  faith  in  immor- 
tality is  built  rather  upon  a  craving  of  nature  than 
upon  a  grounded  conviction,  and  that  it  has  cling- 
ing to  it  the  curse  attaching  to  all  illegitimate 
possessions.  Yet  Mr.  Smith  is  not  satisfied. 
Through  all  his  career  he  has  clung  to  faith  in 
the  moral  order.  One  rock  is  still  to  him  staringl}' 
above  water,  but  he  does  not  know  how  to  save 
the  ship  that  is  drifting  straight  upon  it  from 
wreck  and  ruin.  He  does  not  understand,  he 
cannot  tell,  how  if  we  give  up  the  belief  in  God, 
we  shall  be  able  to  preserve  the  old  morality. 
Neither  can  we.  In  old  times  Mr.  Smith  would 
have  turned  this  inability  into  a  splendid  and  posi- 
tive argument  for  theism  and  Christianity. 


3i6  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

But  it  is  high  time  we  came  to  the  business  of 
geocentricism.  It  takes  us  back  to  the  days  of 
our  fathers,  to  the  "  Astronomical  Discourses  "  of 
Dr.  Chalmers  and  the  literature  they  evoked,  to 
the  writings  of  Isaac  Ta3'lor  and  Whewell  and 
Brewster.  It  should  be  noticed  in  the  first  place 
that  Mr.  Smith  himself  once  saw  and  main- 
tained with  great  eloquence  that  no  arguments 
drawn  from  history  can  destroy  Christianit3^ 
"  No  question,"  he  said,  "  that  concerns  the 
validity  of  mere  historical  evidence  can  be  abso- 
lutely vital  to  religion.  For  religion  is  a  spiritual 
affection  excited  by  nothing  less  than  the  assured 
presence  of  its  Object.  Christianit}^  has  been 
the  life  of  the  world  for  eighteen  hundred  years. 
It  is  the  life  of  the  world  still.  No  serious  attack 
has  been  made  upon  its  essence.  Reason  is  the 
creation  of  God,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  He  will 
be  dethroned  by  the  work  of  His  own  hands.' 
And  in  the  same  way  science  and  its  discoveries 
can  never  touch  the  life  of  Christianity.  Chris- 
tianity is  friendly  to  all  true  science  and  history, 
but  it  is  not  of  their  order.  It  is  impassive  to  all 
their  attacks,  it  does  not  need  their  defence,  it 
did  not  come  from  the  mind  of  man,  it  descended 
from  a  higher  region,  and  holds  its  inexpugnable 


THE  LATEST  SCARECROW  317 

place  in  the  heart  and  conscience.  But  to  come 
closer  to  the  argument.  There  is  to  begin  with 
no  comparative  measure  between  the  infinite  and 
the  finite.  Whatever  tlie  universe  may  be,  no 
matter  how  our  conception  of  the  immensities  be 
extended  by  further  astronomical  discoveries,  it 
remains  true  that  the  universe  is  finite.  It  is  not 
infinite  any  more  than  a  drop  of  water  is. 
Because  our  vision  is  limited  and  weak,  it  may 
seem  to  be  infinite,  but  to  the  Infinite  Being,  as 
Coleridge  says,  the  distance  between  the  stars 
and  systems  is  no  more  than  that  between 
particles  of  earth  is  to  us.  Hence  every  argu- 
ment grounded  on  the  supposition  that  mere 
vastness  approximates  infinity,  and  is  more  to 
God  than  comparative  littleness,  is  from  the 
very  nature  of  the  case  a  fallacy.  Further,  the 
measure  of  the  spirit  and  the  measure  of  matter 
are  not  the  same.  Pascal  put  the  whole  case  in 
his  pregnant  sentence  :  "  If  the  universe  were  to 
fall  and  crush  me,  I  should  be  greater  than  the 
universe,  for  I  should  be  conscious  of  defeat,  and 
it  would  be  unconscious  of  victory."  The  lustre 
of  suns  and  constellations,  whatever  it  may  be,  is 
nothing  beside  the  glories  of  the  human  spirit. 
The  universe,  no  matter  how  extended  it  may  be. 


3i8  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

is  dead.  It  cannot  think,  or  feel,  or  imagine,  or 
love.  The  child  from  whose  mouth  God  has 
perfected  praise  is  greater  than  the  sun,  greater 
than  all  the  worlds  which,  though  put  together, 
are  dumbly  magnificent.  And  as  the  Guardian 
points  out,  Dr.  Hutchison  Stirling  has  shown 
that  except  to  an  e3'e  and  ear  the  whole  system 
of  things  is  simply  an  indefinite  extension  of 
stones  vibrating  in  silence  and  in  darkness.  We 
ourselves  make  the  marvels  of  the  universe. 
Light  is  mere  undulation  of  particles  except  to 
us.  The  music  of  the  spheres  itself  is  music 
only  to  an  ear.  Man  exists  in  a  universe  of 
hustling  and  dancing  atoms  which  are  material 
through  and  through.  The  physical  insignifi- 
cance of  man  may  be  contrasted  with  the 
incomparable  vastness  of  his  surroundings  only 
when  it  is  forgotten  that  man  is  more  than 
matter,  and  that  matter,  save  in  its  relation  to 
percipient  beings,  has  no  true  existence. 

These  arguments  have  not  been  needed  of  late, 
because  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  thinking 
beings  in  other  worlds  is  less  strong  than  it  was. 
Isaac  Taylor  in  his  "Saturday  Evening"  has  a 
fine  essay,  entitled,  "The  State  of  Seclusion." 
In  this  he  points  out  that  we  are  insulated  from 


THE  LATEST  SCARECROW  319 

Other  worlds  in  order  that  our  probation  may 
be  more  completely  secured.  He  argues  that  if 
we  saw  from  this  world  all  the  consequences  of 
good  and  evil  as  manifested  in  the  innumerable 
worlds  which,  he  thought,  were  replete  with 
intellectual  and  moral  life,  we  should  be  driven 
into  virtue,  not  led  into  it,  by  a  consideration  of 
its  results.  But  God  hides  these  from  us  that 
our  great  choice  may  be  a  matter  of  voluntary- 
consent.  Even  if  there  are  intellectual  and  moral 
beings  in  other  worlds,  that  does  not  concern  us. 
We  do  not  know  it,  we  do  not  know  them.  If 
they  exist  we  know  nothing  of  their  conditions. 
What  we  do  know  is  that  into  our  world  the  Son 
of  God  has  come,  and  that  in  our  world  the  pure 
in  heart  may  see  God.  Our  Lord  and  His 
Apostles  were  never  daunted,  far  less  over- 
whelmed, by  the  immensity  of  the  universe.  He 
who  stood  behind  the  tremendous  curtain  of 
creation,  who  knew  the  ineffable  secret,  who 
beheld  with  open  face  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
promised  the  same  vision  to  all  who  should  trust 
Him.  His  Apostle  said  :  "  All  these  things  shall 
be  dissolved.  The  heavens  shall  pass  awa}'  with 
a  great  noise ;  the  elements  shall  melt  with 
fervent  heat  ;  the  earth  also  and  the  works  that 


320  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  CROSS 

are  thereon  shall  be  burnt  up."  But  though  the 
starry  splendours  be  folded  up  like  a  vesture  and 
changed,  we  are  to  survive  them.  We  are  not  to 
be  dissolved.  We,  according  to  His  promise, 
look  for  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth  wherein 
dwelleth  righteousness.  We  see  beyond  us  the 
enduring  realities  that  last  when  this  majestic 
universe,  which  was  the  nursery  of  the  budding 
soul,  has  passed  like  a  dream,  and  when  the 
glories  of  the  visible  creation  are  as  toys  that 
have  been  surmounted  and  put  away.  We  may 
see,  as  Apostles  did,  the  invisible  order.  Our 
thoughts  may  be  with  the  enduring — with  the 
great  High  Priest  set  over  the  house  of  God,  the 
perpetual  liturgy  of  the  world  of  spirits,  the 
Throne  behind  the  veil. 


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